Census writing routed export transaction rules

The bureau received 53 formal comments in response to an advance notice of proposed rulemaking for transactions in which a foreign buyer contracts with a U.S. agent to facilitate exports from the United States.    The Census Bureau is working to release routed export transaction regulations by the end of this year, Census Trade Outreach and Regulations Assistant Division Chief Omari Wooden said last week during the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) annual conference in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
   In response to an October “advance notice of proposed rulemaking” on routed export transactions, Census received 53 formal comments, within which were more than 200 “unique topics and questions” that the agency is now organizing into different categories, Wooden said.
   Main categories include the definition of a routed export transaction, responsibilities of parties to the transaction and handling of “Incoterms,” a series of pre-defined commercial terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce also known as International Commercial Terms.
   Census will accept more comments after it issues the formal notice of proposed rulemaking before 2019, Wooden said.
   Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) export manifest filing requirements “will happen” regardless of whether filers test the functionality in ACE before rollout, Jim Swanson, director of the Cargo and Security Controls Division for Cargo and Conveyance Security in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations, said during the conference.
   He said he anticipates that CBP would issue more directives on ACE export manifest regulations as well as begin “to float around” some considered regulations on post-departure filings sometime this fall.
   “We have invested in the process,” Swanson said. “We will be mandating it. We’ve been trying to go slow to keep it in development, but at some point, we’re going to be pushing out those regulations. And what will happen is … if you’re not yet involved and you are creating export bills of lading under a mode of transportation, it will affect you at some point.”