AES message helps shippers keep track of export license values

The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, along with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, have released a new function in the Automated Export System that helps shippers keep track of their export license value thresholds.    The U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), along with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, have released a new function in the Automated Export System (AES) that helps shippers keep track of their export license value thresholds.
   Each export license has a value limit for the amount of the good that a company can legally ship. BIS tracks the value amount exported against the license through a process called “decrementation.” 
   AES now provides an automatic informational message to the filer each time a shipment is exported against its Commerce Department license.
   The BIS informational message was recommended by President’s Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration’s Process Improvement Team and activated July 28.
   Depending on the circumstances of the filing, notifications may alert the filer that:
     • BIS license value has been met or exceeded by a prior filing;
     • BIS license value has been exceeded by the current filing;
     • The allowable shipping tolerance (10 percent over BIS license value) has been exceeded by the current filing;
     • Or the remaining value on the BIS license (may be negative).
   “These messages will not preclude the issuance of an ITN, nor will they result in a fatal error,” BIS said.
   “The intent of this action is to enable filers to better track their own license usage and to identify potential filing errors so that corrective action can be taken immediately,” the agency added.
   This function is conducted in a similar way to licenses issued by the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls for items subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
   Questions and comments about this change may be directed to the BIS Office of Technology Evaluation by phone at (202) 482-4933 or by email at ECR_AES@bis.doc.gov.
   In addition, the BIS Office of Technology Evaluation recently recreated the agency’s data portal, ensuring its compliance with the Obama administration’s Open Data Policy and Commerce secretary’s data goal.
   The new data portal features statistical reports on U.S. trade with other countries and export control reform analyses. It also has two data sets featuring 2015 aggregate export totals by value, country, Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) and license type. These data sets are in open, machine-readable formats to allow users to create their own reports, BIS said.