Code 238 Went Live in ACE Today. Will U.S. FTZs Direct Delivery Bounce Back?

FTZ News: U.S. Customs flipped a new switch in ACE this morning. Electronic Foreign-Trade Zone admissions that used to clear with a bad FIRMS code for direct delivery will now come back marked 238.

The note is CSMS 69902241, dated Sept. 14, from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Production gets the code on Sept. 17. Certification already had it. Appendix P of the e214 error list now carries the line FIRMS CODE NOT APPROVED FOR DIRECT DELIVERY. The Foreign-Trade Zone chapter of CATAIR was opened in the same packet. CBP’s wording is that the chapter clarifies what was already required. It does not say the statute of the zones was rewritten.

Direct delivery is the path that lets freight roll into a site without the extra stop at the waterfront. The privilege sits on the FIRMS code, not on the zone number alone. A filer can have a live Zone ID and a live port and still fail if that FIRMS record was never approved for the shortcut. Error 238 is ACE saying the shortcut is not on the file.

Operators who can open the FTZ Operator view in the ACE portal are told to match three fields to each site they run: Zone ID, FIRMS code, Port code. That is the whole operational ask in the bulletin. No grace period is listed. No list of ports is attached. The documents sit under Appendices and Current Capabilities on the CATAIR page at cbp.gov/trade/automated/catair. Software questions go to the assigned client representative or the local port. Questions on the message itself go to [email protected].

The practical cut is narrow and immediate. Houses that have been filing e214s against a FIRMS code used for ordinary admission, and treating direct delivery as a habit rather than a flag on that code, will see rejects today. Cargo does not become inadmissible. The admission path they picked is refused until the code is fixed or the filing is sent without the direct-delivery claim.

CBP did not publish how many codes in the national file lack the approval. It did not say whether brokers or zone operators will take the first call when a truck is already at the gate. Those gaps are in the bulletin, not in the software. The software will only spit 238./.