International Trade Law News

The Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division (FTD) recently started providing U.S. Principal Parties in Interest (USPPIs) and other filers requesting their Electronic Export Information filed in the Automated Export System (AES) with the 10 data elements required in routed export transactions.

Data associated with routed export transactions was not previously provided to USPPIs but was added by Census due to numerous requests from exporters.

A routed export transaction transaction is where a Foreign Principal Party in Interest (FPPI) authorizes a U.S. agent to facilitate the export of items from the U.S. on its behalf and prepare and file the Electronic Export Information (EEI) via AES. Section 30.3(e)(1) of the Foreign Trade Regulations (15 CFR § 30.3(e)(1)) requires the USPPI to provide the forwarding or other authorized agent with the following 10 data elements for purposes of preparing the AES filing:

(i) Name and address of the USPPI
(ii) USPPI’s EIN
(iii) State of origin
(iv) FTZ if applicable
(v) Commercial description of commodities
(vi) Origin of goods indicator: Domestic (D) or Foreign (F)
(vii) Schedule B or HTSUS Classification Commodity Code
(viii) Quantities/units of measure
(ix) Value
(x) Export Control Classification Number (ECCN)

The FTD's Regulations, Outreach and Education Branch will provide USPPIs with validated records of their AES submissions upon written request. This data is useful for companies conducting internal audits of their AES compliance. Census will provide companies with 12 months of AES data free of charge every 365 days.

Labels: AES, Census

In order to implement yesterday's changes in certain aspects of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, the Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division has issued Foreign Trade Letter No. 5 explaining the requirements for filing electronic export information (EEI) through the Automated Export System (AES) for shipments under new License Exception Consumer Communication Devices (CCD).

License Exception CCD authorizes exports and re-exports to Cuba of certain donated consumer communications devices, computers, and software to individuals in Cuba and to independent non-governmental organizations in Cuba. Exports or re-exports under the License Exception CCD may not be made to organizations administered or controlled by the Cuban Government or the Communist Party or to designated officials of the Cuban Government or Communist Party.

FTR Letter No. 5 also states that Census has modified the AES by adding the new License Type Code “C58” for the License Exception CCD. The AES filers who report “C58” are required to report CCD, regardless of value, in the license number field and the Export Control Classification Numbers 4A994, 4D994, 5A991, 5D991, 5A992, 5D992, or EAR99 corresponding to the License Exception. The country of destination and ultimate consignee reported in the AES must be CU.

Labels: BIS; EAR, Census, Cuba, Sanctions

U.S. exporters, freight forwarders and other authorized agents filing Electronic Export Information (EEI) using the Automated Export System should be aware that today the Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division issued an important export compliance notice.

The notice, which is reprinted below, advises that on October 1, 2009, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) will be adding new electronic edits on ECCNs, Special Comprehensive Licenses and certain license exceptions to ensure that EEI information reported is correct and accurate.

AES Broadcast 06/30/2009 Broadcast # 2009024

**********************************************************************

BIS to Add New Edits on ECCNs, Special Comprehensive Licenses, and Certain License Exceptions

**********************************************************************

United States Principal Parties in Interest (USPPIs) and their authorized filing agents (AES filers) are reminded that the AES record containing the Electronic Export Information (EEI) is an export control record under § 758.1(f) of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Furthermore, the AES record represents whether the export authorized under the terms and conditions of a license, license exception or no license required is true, accurate and complete.

Effective October 1, 2009, BIS is tightening up the edits on the EEI to improve statistics and to ensure that AES filers are correctly certifying the use of a license or license exception authorization or no license required designation. AES filers must prepare for these edits, as described below to prevent the return of fatal errors from AES.

- The export Control Classification Number (ECCN), when reported in AES must be [a] valid 5 - position ECCN as listed on the Commerce Control List. See Supplement 1 to § 774 of the EAR for a complete list of valid ECCNs and their descriptions. www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/ear_data.html

- The Special Comprehensive License (SCL) number reported in AES under license type C31 must be a BIS approved SCL.

- License exceptions LVS(C35), GBS(C36), CIV(C37), and TSR(C38) must designate an eligible ECCN and country. See Part 740 (License Exceptions) and Supplement 1 to § 774 (Commerce Control List) www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/pdf/740spir.pdf and
www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/ear_data.html

- In accordance with the EAR § 740.17, license exception ENC(C50) must only be used with ECCNs 5A002, 5B002, 5D002 and 5E002. www.access.gpo.gov/bis/ear/pdf/740.pdf

Please note that by using a License Exception, you are certifying that the terms, provisions and conditions for the use of the License Exception described in the EAR have been met. See Part 740 of the EAR.

If you are unable to resolve fatal errors related to the above and require regulatory guidance from BIS, please contact its Office of Exporter Services at one of the following locations.

Western Regional Office (949) 660-0144
San Jose, CA Branch (408) 291-4212
Headquarters, Washington, DC (202) 482-4811

Labels: AES, Census

The U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division has announced that Mr. Omari Wooden has been named as the Foreign Trade Division's Trade Ombudsman. Mr. Wooden replaces Jerry Greenwell, who retired in January 2009 after more than 36 years with Census.

Mr. Wooden joined the U.S. Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division in October 1997. He had been the project manager for postdeparture reporting program in the Automated Export System (AES) Branch.

Mr. Wooden has been recognized numerous times for his outstanding work with the export trade community, including special recognition for his effort with AES Team for marketing and customer service. Most recently, Mr. Wooden received a team Silver Medal Award for Leadership from the Department of Commerce for his work on the revision and implementation of the new Foreign Trade Regulations.

Mr. Wooden received his BS degree in Mathematics from the University of Maryland at College Park. He also received a Master of Science in Management from the University of Maryland and a Master's Certificate in Project Management from the George Washington University School of Business.

Labels: AES, Census

The U.S. Census Bureau has modified the Automated Export System filing time frames for shipments between the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Since Puerto Rico is part of the "Customs territory of the United States", shipments between the U.S. and Puerto Rico are exempt from the advance filing requirements set forth in the Foreign Trade Regulations that were issued last year.

In FTR Letter No. 1 issued in September 2008, Census advised that even though Puerto Rico-related shipments were exempt from the FTR's advance filing requirements, the proof of filing citation had to be presented to the carrier “prior to departure” of the shipment.

After consulting with the trade community servicing Puerto Rico Census has modified the filing deadline. In FTR Letter No. 4, which was issued on April 23rd, Census stated that for shipments between the U.S. and Puerto Rico the proof of filing citation, postdeparture filing citation or exemption citation now has to be presented to the carrier “by the time the shipment arrives at the port of unlading.”

Labels: AES, Census

The U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Commercial Service are offering a series of Export Compliance Webinars from February 17, 2009 throughMarch 5, 2009.

The webinars are designed to educate the exporting trade community on the Foreign Trade Regulations. All webinars will be held from 2:00 - 3:00pm ET with a cost of $50.00 per module.

Webinar topics will be divided into the following five modules:

February 17 Filing Requirements
February 19 Export Commodity Classification
February 24 AES Overview
February 26 How to Use AESPcLink
March 5 CBP's Enforcement Guidelines

The Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Regulations, that were issued on June 2, 2008, require all Electronic Export Information (formerly known as Shipper's Export Declarations or SEDs) be filed via the Automated Export System (AES) prior to the departure of the cargo from the U.S.

Labels: AES, Census

The Census Bureau's most recent AES Newsletter contains the following FY 2008 export licensing statistics and information from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS):

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2008, BIS processed 21,290 export license applications involving trade worth approximately $72.2 billion. This marked an increase of 9% over the 19,504 applications processed in FY 2007 and represented the highest number of applications reviewed by BIS in over a decade.

BIS approved 17,942 license applications, returned 3,171 applications without action, and denied 177 applications. In FY 2008, BIS continued to ensure the timely review of all license applications with an average processing time of 27 days.

Eighty-seven percent of AES transactions involving a license or license exception were reported accurately in FY 2008. The following lists the top compliance problems with EAR-related reporting in AES:

1) Incorrect Use of “No License Required” (NLR) License Type.
2) Missing Export Control Classification Number (ECCN).
3) Incorrect Use of EAR99.
4) Invalid Country Use With Commerce Control List (CCL)-Based License Exception.
5) CCL-Based License Exception Not Applicable to an ECCN.
6) Country Mismatch Between License and AES Destinations.

Labels: AES, BIS, Census

The front page of the recent edition of the Census Bureau's AES Newsletter contains the following story on Jerry Greenwell's recent retirement from Census after 36 years of government service:

Yes, the rumors are true! Trade Ombudsman Jerome (Jerry) Greenwell retired in early January 2009, after more than 36 years of federal service, all of it in the Foreign Trade Division (FTD) of the U. S. Census Bureau. At the time of this publication, Mr. Greenwell had not announced his future plans, but hoped to continue in the area of export compliance. We congratulate Jerry Greenwell on his retirement and numerous accomplishments, and thank him for many years of excellent service representing the FTD throughout the trade community.

Ms. Dale Dickerson Kelly has been named Assistant Division Chief for Data Collection Programs and Mr. Joe Cortez is now Branch Chief of the Regulations, Outreach, and Education Branch. Along with Jerry Greenwell and Bill Bostic, Ms. Kelly and Mr. Cortez played major roles in the publication of the new FTR published in the Federal Register last year.

Labels: AES, Census

The Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division has issued its second "ForeignTrade Letter" to provide guidance on issues associated with the new Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR).

FTR Letter No. 2 covers "shipment reference numbers", which according to section 30.6(a)(19) of the FTR is a "unique identification number assigned to the shipment by the filer for reference purposes." The FTR specifies that this number must remain unique for five years.

The FTR letter notes that some AES filers have attempted to reuse the shipment reference numbers following the five year period but that Census has determined that AES was not configured to allow shipment reference numbers to be reused and that the capability cannot be added without a complete redesign of AES. As a result, Census is prohibiting the reuse of shipment reference numbers. Effective immediately filers can no longer assign the same shipment reference number to future shipments.

FTR Letter No. 2 can be found here (pdf).

Labels: AES, Census

The Census Bureau recently issued an important clarification relating to the filing of Electronic Export Information (EEI) through the Automated Export System (AES) for shipments between the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

FTR Letter No. 1, a copy of which can be found here (pdf), states that because Puerto Rico is within the U.S. Customs Territory, shipments from the U.S. to Puerto Rico and from Puerto Rico to the U.S. are exempt from the advance filing deadlines set forth in the new Foreign Trade Regulations that were issued by Census on June 2, 2008.

While the proof of EEI filing citation, post departure filing citation or exemption must be presented to the carrier prior to the departure of goods from the U.S. to Puerto Rico and from Puerto Rico to the U.S., the EEI filing does not have to be made in advance as required by the new advance filing requirements (e.g., 24 hours by vessel or 2 hours by air).

As a reminder, Census will begin enforcing the new mandatory and advance AES filing rule on September 30, 2008.

Labels: AES, Census

This is a reminder that today is the effective date of the the final rule issued by the Census Bureau on June 2, 2008 requiring that all Electronic Export Information (formerly known as Shipper's Export Declarations or SEDs) be filed via the Automated Export System (AES) prior to the departure of the cargo from the U.S.

The Census Bureau has adopted a 120 day implementation period. During the 120-day implementation phase, the Census Bureau will use “informed compliance” to reach out to filers identified as violating provisions of the AES rule. Parties submitting paper SEDs after September 30, 2008 will be considered to be in violation of the Foreign Trade Regulations and can be subject to monetary penalties.

The new AES filing deadlines for non-USML shipments set forth in the final rule are:

Sea: 24 hours prior to departure
Truck: 1 hour prior to truck arriving at U.S. border
Air: 2 hours prior to scheduled departure time
Rail: 2 hours prior to train arriving at U.S. border
Mail: 2 hours prior to export

Pursuant to section 123.22(b) of the ITAR, the AES filing deadlines for USML shipments remain as follows:

Air: 8 hours prior to scheduled departure time
Truck: 8 hours prior to truck arriving at U.S. border
Rail: 24 hours prior to train arriving at U.S. border
Sea: 24 hours prior to departure

In addition, for those using AESDirect to file EEI should be aware that starting on October 1, 2008 AESDirect will have heightened security measures and user authentication practices. These changes include:

- Individual User Account Administration
- Stronger Password Requirements
- Shorter Password Expiration Time frames
- Automatic Inactive Account Deactivation
- Session Timeout/Concurrent Login Limit
- Account Lockout after 3 Unsuccessful Logins
- New Account Administration Functions

Labels: AES, Census, ITAR