April 25, 2003

Recently, the U.S. Census Bureau has floated the idea of testing and licensing individuals before a company can make use of the Automated Export System (AES) for filing of export data electronically.

What’s This All About?

In July of 1999, the U.S. Census Bureau amended the Foreign Trade Statistics Regulations (FTSR) to allow for the filing shipper's export data electronically using the Automated Export System (AES), rather than by paper SED.  Under the regulations, there are four export data filing options for exporters.  These are:

Under AES, the exporter or an authorized filing agent transmits the shipper's export information directly to Census.  The AES validates the data and generates either a confirmation message or an error message.  For the manifest information, the carrier or an authorized filing agent also transmits the export data using the AES.  The AES validates the transportation data, then generates either a confirmation message or an error message.  The exporter, carrier, or an authorized filing agent must attend to any errors generated by the AES.

First Voluntary – Now Mandatory

The program was originally voluntary, and still is, to some extent.  However, this is changing.  In November of 1999, Congress passed and the President signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2000.  Section 1252 of this law authorized Commerce/Census to require mandatory AES reporting of export information for all items on the U.S. Munitions List (State) and the Commerce Control List (BXA) that require an SED.

On October 9, 2002, the U.S. Census Bureau published a Proposed Rule in the Federal Register (67 FR 62911) to amend its regulations to incorporate requirements for the mandatory Automated Export System (AES) filing for items identified on the Department of Commerce’s Control List (CCL) and the Department of State’s United States Munitions List (USML).  The anticipated implementation date for this requirement is June 2003.

More recently, Congress passed P.L. 107-228 (the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for 2003), and, in section 1404, authorized the mandatory filing through AES of all exports not otherwise covered by section 1252 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2000.  (This law also increased export penalties for the filing of false or misleading export information from $1,000 to $10,000 per violation.)

Census Proposes That Filers Have At Least
One Licensed Individual Per Filing Location

Census is now proposing that all companies filing through AES have at least one individual per filing location licensed by the Census Bureau to electronically submit the export information.  By doing so, Census hopes to:

Under the proposal, which has yet to published, all U.S. principal parties in interest, Freight Forwarders, and other agents (NVOCCs, consolidators, etc.) using AES would have to have at least one licensed individual per filing location.  These individuals must:

Details of the licensing program have not been released; however, it is proposed that the licensee will have to have 40 hours of continuing education during the 5 years the license will be valid. 

The first official announcement of the program in the Federal Register is expected for release this spring, with a Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking in the Fall of 2003, and a final rule by early 2004, along with the implementation of Mandatory AES for all export shipments.

Need More Information?

Please contact George R. Tuttle, III for additional information about: