CENSUS OFFERS FREE AES USER MEETINGS

CENSUS OFFERS FREE AES USER MEETINGS    The U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division will offer the shipping industry free Automated Export System user meetings starting later this month.
   AES will be mandatory for processing shipper’s export declarations for shipments listed on the U.S. Munitions List and the Commerce Control List by this summer.
   In addition, Public Law 107-228, signed by President Bush, gives the Commerce Secretary the authority to write regulations making AES mandatory for all shipments that currently require shippers' export declarations.
   “The user meetings will prepare you and your companies for these big changes,” said Gerard J. Horner, chief of AES Branch at Census, in an announcement to exporters and freight forwarders Thursday.
   The AES user meetings include:
   * Jan. 30 — AES user meeting, Miami.
   * Jan. 31 — AESDirect workshop, Miami.
   * Feb. 12 — AES user meeting, Los Angeles.
   * Feb. 13 — AESDirect workshop, Los Angeles.
   * March 11 — AES user meeting, Jamaica, N.Y.
   * March 12 — AESDirect workshop, Hempstead, N.Y.
   * April 3 — AES user meeting, Boulder, Colo.
   For more information about the AES user meetings and workshops, access online https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/aes/meetingsandpresentations/index.html.