CUSTOMS COMPLIANCE | 2026-09-18

ACE Now Rejects Copper Entry Summaries Without Smelt and Cast Data: What Changed on September 14, 2026

CBP has turned its copper country-of-smelt and country-of-cast reporting requirement from a warning into a fatal ACE error, so an entry summary that omits the data no longer files at all.

Reporting requirements usually arrive quietly and are enforced later. This one arrived quietly in July and became unavoidable on September 14, 2026, when CBP flipped the ACE validation for copper country of smelt and country of cast from a warning to a fatal rejection. An entry summary missing that data is no longer accepted, which converts a data-quality problem into a cargo-release problem for California importers of insulated electrical conductors and cable.

What Changed on September 14, 2026

On August 31, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued CSMS #69711865, "Copper Additional Smelt and Cast Country Detail Error Code Update." The message announced that, effective Monday, September 14, 2026, the Automated Commercial Environment would begin rejecting entry summaries in which the copper primary country of smelt and the country of cast are not reported.

The mechanism matters as much as the rule. ACE returns error F794, "ADDTNL DEC TYPE RQRD FOR ARTICLE," when the required record for copper is not submitted. Before September 14 that condition surfaced as a warning — informational, survivable, and easy for a filer to treat as noise. As of September 14 the same condition is a fatal error, and a fatal error in ACE means the entry summary does not file.

For an importer, the practical consequence is not a penalty notice months later. It is a filing that does not go through today, on merchandise that is already on the water or already on the dock.

The Underlying Requirement: CSMS #69252300

The reporting obligation itself is older than the error code. CBP issued CSMS #69252300, "GUIDANCE: Section 232 Copper Smelt and Cast Reporting Requirements," on July 15, 2026, with an effective date of July 30, 2026. That guidance directed importers of certain copper articles to report the primary country of smelt and the country of cast, with an option to report a secondary country of smelt where one applies.

Between July 30 and September 14, then, the requirement existed but the system tolerated omissions. Companies that filed successfully during that window may reasonably have concluded that the data was optional. It was not optional; it was merely unenforced at the validation layer. The September 14 change closed that gap.

Which Entries Are Affected

CBP identified the covered classifications specifically. The smelt and cast reporting requirement applies to copper articles entered under HTSUS 8544.42.10, 8544.42.20, 8544.42.90, and 8544.49.10 — subheadings covering insulated electric conductors and cable, both fitted with connectors and not.

That scope is narrower than "copper" in the colloquial sense, and the narrowness is itself a trap. A company importing a diverse catalog may have only a handful of SKUs falling into these four subheadings, which makes it easy for the requirement to sit outside the compliance calendar entirely until a filing fails. Importers of wiring harnesses, appliance cordsets, data and power cable, and assembled electrical components should confirm classification against these four subheadings directly rather than assuming that a product described as an assembly falls outside them.

How the Data Is Transmitted in ACE

The information moves through the Importer's Additional Declaration, using Type Code 12 — Copper Smelt and Cast Country Detail — transmitted on the 54 record. This is the same architecture CBP has used for steel and aluminum melt-and-pour and smelt-and-cast reporting, so a broker already handling Section 232 steel or aluminum entries has the transmission capability; what it may not have is the underlying country data for copper.

That distinction is where most of the operational failures occur. The filer can transmit the record as soon as the importer supplies the countries. The importer frequently cannot supply the countries, because the information sits with a mill or a smelter two or three tiers up a supply chain that was never asked the question before 2026.

Why "OTH" Is Not a Safe Default

CBP's guidance permits an importer to report "OTH" — other — where the smelt or cast country is unknown. That option keeps cargo moving, and in the days after September 14 it is the obvious way to clear a filing that would otherwise fail.

It should be understood as a bridge, not a destination. Reporting "OTH" satisfies the ACE validation; it does not by itself satisfy the separate obligation under 19 U.S.C. § 1484 to use reasonable care in making entry, and it does not resolve the Section 232 duty question that the data exists to answer. An importer that reports "OTH" indefinitely, without a documented effort to obtain the actual smelt and cast countries, is building a record that is difficult to defend if CBP later asks how the declared information was supported. The better posture is to report "OTH" only where a genuine inquiry has been made and has not yet produced an answer, and to document that inquiry contemporaneously.

Where This Fits in the Broader Section 232 Picture

Copper entered the Section 232 framework alongside aluminum and steel under the 2026 adjustment, with the revised duties taking effect at 12:01 a.m. eastern time on April 6, 2026 as set out in CBP's implementing guidance. Smelt and cast country data is the evidentiary backbone of that regime: it is how CBP determines which metal content is subject to which rate, and it is how claims tied to particular origins are tested.

Viewed that way, the September 14 change is not a standalone data-entry rule. It is CBP moving the copper program from a self-reported honor system to a validated one — the same trajectory the steel and aluminum programs followed. Importers should expect the data they now transmit to be used, and to be compared against entry documentation, mill certificates, and supplier declarations if an entry is later reviewed.

Practical Steps for California Importers

For companies moving copper cable and conductors through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a short, concrete sequence addresses most of the exposure:

Confirm scope first. Run a classification query across active SKUs for the four covered subheadings. Do not rely on a product-description search; rely on the HTS number actually transmitted on recent entries.

Ask suppliers in writing. Request the primary country of smelt, any secondary country of smelt, and the country of cast for each covered article, and ask for the mill or smelter documentation that supports the answer. A written request creates the record that a later inquiry will ask for.

Reconcile filings made before September 14. Entries filed between July 30 and September 14 were subject to the requirement even though ACE did not enforce it. Where those filings omitted the data or carried a placeholder, review whether correction through a post summary correction — or, where an actual duty consequence is involved, a prior disclosure — is warranted. Correcting on one's own initiative is materially better positioned than being found.

Align the broker instructions. Confirm that the customs broker is transmitting Additional Declaration Type Code 12 on the 54 record for every covered line, and that the broker's instruction set does not silently substitute "OTH" without notifying the importer.

Document the reasonable-care file. Keep the supplier requests, responses, and any mill certificates together with the entry records. If CBP asks how a declared country was determined, the answer should be a file, not a recollection.

How Trembach Law Helps

Trembach Law advises importers, distributors, and manufacturers on Section 232 compliance, tariff classification, country-of-origin and smelt-and-cast documentation, post summary corrections, prior disclosures, and responses to CBP inquiries. Attorney Anatolii Trembach is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of International Trade, so a matter that escalates from an entry-level correction into a protest or litigation stays with the same counsel.

The firm is based in Calabasas, serves importers at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and represents importers nationwide.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice. How any requirement applies depends on the specific facts of a company's products, classifications, and entries, and no outcome is guaranteed.

Contact Trembach Law Firm at (818) 514-7680 for a confidential consultation.

Trembach Law Firm | 27001 Agoura Road, Suite 350, Calabasas, CA 91301