U.S. CENSUS, BXA CLOSE COMMENT PERIOD FOR NEW DEFINITION OF EXPORTER

   The U.S. Commerce Department’s Census Bureau and the Export
Administration will close out the comment period for their proposed
definitions of exporter today.
   The definitions are similar in nature but different in terms of their
applications. The agencies began to clarify the definition of exporter in
August 1998. Many recommendations from the industry were incorporated into the proposed definitions.
   Census says the new definition is to improve the quality of trade data
collected from shipper’s export declarations (SEDs). The Export
Administration says its revisions will further help to enforce Commerce’s
export regulations.
   Under the new proposed rules, the exporter or seller of cargo ("U.S.
principal party in interest" or Box 1A of the shipper’s export declaration) is responsible for supplying Census with commodity data, such as Schedule B numbers, quantity, value and shipping weight. The forwarder must also provide transportation data. The forwarder may fill out the entire SED if it has written permission from the exporter.
   The Export Administration said its revised rules will allow the
forwarder or agent of a foreign buyer to be the exporter and apply for a
license.
   Census has received several comments from the industry about liability in export transactions. "It doesn’t really matter who signs the SED," said Frank Korpusik, program analyst for the Foreign Trade Division at Census. "Anyone in an export transaction may be liable."
   Other comments from the industry included adding another box to the
export declaration for when the order party is different from the exporter. Census opposes this idea, because it would mean printing new forms and increasing the paperwork burden for the agencies.
   "We will seriously evaluate the comments and make calls to the
respondents before we issue a final rule," Korpusik said.
   Comments will be accepted by the agencies through next week as long as they are dated Dec. 3. Census and the Export Administration expect to publish their final rules simultaneously by early February.