CENSUS PROPOSES PROGRAM TO TAKE NVOS OUT OF SED-FILING BUSINESS

CENSUS PROPOSES PROGRAM TO TAKE NVOS OUT OF SED-FILING BUSINESS    The U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau has developed a program that it believes will help non-vessel-operating common carriers get out of the business of processing shipper’s export declarations.
   The Bureau of the Census/Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier Export Initiative Agreement would allow NVOs in the capacity of data entry centers to key shipper’s export declarations for their forwarder clients, while at same time encouraging their clients to file export data directly to Customs’ Automated Export System or through Census’ free Internet link AESDirect.
   Other aspects of the NVO agreement will include timelines and data quality conditions to correctly file shipper’s export declarations. Census will provide NVOs with training and help them to deal with non-compliant customers, if necessary.
   Census will release the agreement to the NVO industry early next week. The agency will implement it after receiving consensus from the NVOs. Since last year, Census has struck similar agreements with the ocean and air carriers.