How to Meet Trade Compliance Regulations set Forth by the Single Window Mandate

Government is Committed to Modernizing and Facilitating International Trade

In February 2014, President Obama signed an Executive Order to streamline the import and export process for U.S. businesses.

The Order requires the completion and government-wide utilization of the International Trade Data System (ITDS) by December 2016.

ITDS — through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) — will allow businesses to import or export cargo by submitting required data to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and its Partner Government Agencies (PGAs) through a “Single Window.”

Key Objective of ACE is Enforcement

The SAFE Port Act of 2006 authorization requires all “agencies that require documentation for clearing or licensing the importation and exportation of cargo” to participate in ITDS as part of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system.

The primary objectives of this initiative are to:

• Enable government agencies to better interdict unsafe shipments
• Discourage proliferation of parallel import reporting systems
• Eliminate the need to collect some paper documents, allowing remote filing of supplemental forms

With the new Executive Order, ACE will become the “Single Window” – the primary system through which the trade community will report imports and exports.

Why the Single Window Concept?

Automated export system re-engineering and incorporation into ACE will result in the creation of a single automated export processing platform for all export manifest, commodity, licensing, export control, and export targeting transactions.

The program will reduce costs for CBP, PGAs and the trade community, as well as improve facilitation of export shipments through the supply chain.

Initial deployment was targeted for April 2014 followed by export manifest integration in January 2015. However, the timeline has been updated with a December 2016 deadline for full implementation of the Single Window via ACE.