CBP no longer providing for exchange rate queries in ABI.

In CSMS# 17-000336, June 8, 2017, CBP announced that currency exchange rates will now be found on only on their website, and that “As of July 8, 2017 the foreign currency exchange rates and its related currency rate query will no longer be provided via ABI.”

In the past, CBP has not traditionally published the exchange rates. Rather, they were made available to ABI providers through a query.  Most ABI providers have a written program that automatically queries the current rates on a daily basis, which then updates the tables within their system and ensures the correct exchange rate is automatically used in each entry.  This process will be no longer be available from CBP as of July 8th.

So, why has CBP published the rates now online and announced they will discontinue the query capability on July 8th?

Because originally, CBP did not intend to continue to provide the query in ACE at all, and indicated that the Trade would have to find their own source for this information.  This led to an outcry from the Trade, and in last week’s ACE Technical call it was mentioned that, “Due to pressure from Trade groups, etc., CBP will pursue adding this functionality in ACE”.  However, at this time, there is no ETA for the exchange rate query to be made available in ACE.

So, the interim solution is that the Trade will have to manually pull the online spreadsheets from www.cbp.gov, and software providers will need to come up with temporary programming to pull this information into their ABI applications.

One possible issue that may be encountered during this transition period, is the timeliness of these foreign exchange postings to www.cbp.gov.  For example, in reviewing CBP’s posted exchange rate spreadsheets on Monday, June 12, the rates were only provided for shipments with an export date of June 9th or prior.  For shipments that were exported during the weekend there are no available rates.  Presumably CBP will be made aware of this issue and publish the rates more timely going forward.

CNI will continue to monitor and report on this topic as it develops.