On Tuesday, March 1st, the NCBFAA  released a Monday Morning eBriefing newsletter, which focused on the recent statement that was made by the United States Coast Guard (USCG).

According to the NCBFAA eBriefing,  the USCG took a moment to clarify its position on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the new carrier guidelines that require the exporter that is listed on carrier’s master bill of lading to provide a certification of the Verified Gross Mass (VGM) of any container (including the tare weight of the container) tendered to the vessel operators.

There is no need to change processes

Admiral Paul Thomas of the USCG advised that the Coast Guard would need to implement the IMO’s changes through an appropriate regulatory rulemaking, before the IMO can compel the U.S. shippers and carriers to change their current business practices.

It was said that current ly the USCG feels that today’s process are     working as long as both the shipper and carrier has done their job    properly.  Since there is nothing deficient or inherently unsafe about existing export processes, the Coast Guard feels that there is no need to change processes and will not do anything to enforce the new VGM rules on either the U.S. shippers or carriers .

It is assumed that the carriers will not accept this and will continue to push U.S. exporters and OTIs to still provide a VGM  certificate.  This will be monitored carefully by the NCBFAA.

AESDirect has been moved to the ACE portal.  At this time, you can still access the AES Direct; however, it is the intent for CBP/ Census to move the login and password to ACE Portal.

It is just a matter of getting everyone signed on with a new password and login.    You may ask, “Why do we need to be on the ACE Portal, if we already link with AES through our software system?”.  You can file AES through the ACE Portal,  if your system goes down.   The AESDirect via ACE Portal is a good back up for this purpose.  The sign up process takes a few days, so if you do not prepare in advance you will not be able to process AES through the ACE Portal.   When you are singed up, please note that the ACE Portal works best in Explorer. Firefox and Chrome work for the first screens, but anytime you want to drill into the system you will stop having functionality.

If you are a freight forwarder, the AES direct is located via the Exporter pull down view.    Then, go to Submit AESDirect Filings.  I recommend to send an EEI in the AESDirect in order to test that you know the process.

Once you are in the system you will find the program is user friendly.