U.S. PREPARES FOR MANDATORY FILING OF EXPORT DATA

U.S. PREPARES FOR MANDATORY FILING OF EXPORT DATA    With the passage of the 2002 Security Assistance Act by Congress late last week, federal regulators will begin preparing rules for mandatory electronic filing of all export data to the government.
   “We’re excited about this,” said C. Harvey Monk Jr., chief of the Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division, based in Suitland, Md. “It will change how we do business and improve the quality of data for the nation’s trade statistics and enforcement over exports.”
   The legislation is expected to be signed by President Bush this week. However, the regulations are not expected to take effect until next year.
   A significant aspect of the Security Assistance Act is the penalty provisions. Delayed filing of export data or failure to file altogether will result in a $1,000 civil penalty per day per violation up to $10,000. Habitual violators will be subject to criminal penalties of $10,000 per violation or up to five years in prison, or both.
   The rules also call for the Commerce secretary in concurrence with the State and Treasury secretaries to delegate enforcement of the new rules to both Customs and the Bureau of Industry and Security (formerly the Bureau of Export Administration).
   In the next two weeks, Census Bureau officials plan to announce in the Federal Register rules to begin mandatory filing of exports subject to the State Department’s U.S. Munitions List and Commerce Department’s Commerce Control List. For more information, read article “AES readies for new phase” in the October American Shipper, pages 70-71.