The U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to publish Monday the final rule for mandatory electronic filing of shippers' export declarations.
Three years in the waiting after first being proposed, the rules will eliminate the use of paper documentation and require exporters to use the agency's Automated Export System or AES Direct Web portal. According to a preliminary version of the document set to appear in the Federal Register, Census will maintain its moratorium on post-departure filing of export documents. The rule also clarifies a host of disparate federal trade regulations.
The Census Bureau uses the export data to compile the nation's trade statistics, while Customs and Border Protection and other agencies use it to stop illicit exports or determine violations of export control laws.
The rulemaking was held up by an inter-agency dispute between Census and the Department of Homeland Security over sharing confidential export data and allowing companies to file their export documents up to 10 days after a shipment has left the country rather than before departure.
DHS and its CBP branch wanted Census to eliminate post-departure filing in AES altogether because it is perceived as a security loophole in stopping illegal exports. Census placed a moratorium on expanding Option 4 filing, as it is known, in September 2003 because it felt tighter requirements were needed for accepting new companies into the program, but CBP and DHS do not want existing companies grandfathered into the regulations.
There are approximately 1,800 companies today with Option 4 privileges, which agricultural and other bulk shippers in particular say are necessary because the value, weight or quantity of a shipment isn't fully calculated or available until it is loaded on a vessel. The moratorium means that only companies currently accepted in the program may file post-departure shippers' export declarations.
DHS also wanted the ability to share export data with foreign governments for anti-terrorism purposes and to receive blanket, rather than case-by-case, permission to share the export information with other agencies. Census has fought hard to protect the integrity of the information exporters divulge and opposes sharing with foreign governments because of fears the information could be accessed by unauthorized parties and place U.S. exporters at a commercial disadvantage.
Census and DHS have agreed to disagree for the time being in order to get the mandatory AES regulations implemented, according to industry sources familiar with the situation.
The final rule will go into effect on July 2 and become effective on Sept. 30.
To see a draft copy of the final rule, visit: http://federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2008-12133_PI.pdf
Courtesy of American Shipper Newswire
Please contact your export representative at John S. Connor, Inc. with any questions.