It’s the same story we posted on January 10th, 2017, only this time it’s actually going to happen.

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As a follow up to yesterday’s blog, CBP pulled out a bit of a surprise this week in announcing that reconciliation was finally moving to ACE, along with other Post Summary capabilities, effective July 8th, 2017.

With this deployment, US Customs will no longer apply ‘Blanket Reconciliation Flagging’ to entry summaries.  CBP has left it up to the importers and their brokers.  As a result, all reconciliation flagging must be done on an entry-by-entry basis.  Read the June 8, 2017 CSMS & Federal Register notice.

Importers that currently benefit from blanket flagging on their recon entries should work with their customs brokers to ensure entries are flagged in accordance with the importer’s requirements.  If self-filing*, importers should ensure that their ABI software providers’ systems are programmed accordingly.

Failure to properly flag entries for reconciliation, will require importers to submit 520(d)s, post-summary corrections or prior disclosures to correct issues that are otherwise handled by reconciliation, depending on the specific situation.

On yesterday’s ACE technical call, we were told that flags can only be added retroactively by sending a request to CBP HQ, however, we have yet to see a detailed explanation of the process.

By way of background, CBP announced in the December 12, 2016, Federal Register that:

  • CBP is streamlining the process for blanket flagging underlying entries for reconciliation.
  • Under the existing process, importers provided CBP a request asking that CBP input and apply a blanket flag to all underlying entries filed by the importer for a specific time period. Importers also identified the specific issue(s) for which they requested that CBP input and apply the requested blanket flag.
  • This document announces that effective January 14, 2017, importers no longer will submit requests asking that CBP apply a blanket flag on their behalf. Instead, importers may input and apply a blanket flag themselves. Importers who use blanket flagging must continue to identify the issue(s) they are flagging.

Please note that reconciliation flags are applicable ONLY to entry summary types 01, 02 and 06

 * CustomsNow™ self-filing clients have the ability to manage their recon flags at either the “blanket” level, or even at the Part/SKU level, a fantastic option. Learn more.