CENSUS SETS AESDIRECT CERTIFICATION WORKSHOPS FOR APRIL

CENSUS SETS AESDIRECT CERTIFICATION WORKSHOPS FOR APRIL    The U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division has set up several AESDirect certification workshop meetings around the country in April.
   The workshops are to encourage exporters and their freight forwarders to file shipper’s export declarations electronically through the agency’s free Internet link, AESDirect, to Customs’ Automated Export System. Census compiles the data from SEDs for the country’s trade statistics, while Customs uses the information to target illegal exports.
   The workshops include an overview of AES and AESDirect, hands-on PC training using AESDirect, and filing sample SEDs through the system. The sessions finish with a certification quiz. Upon certification, companies may start filing SEDs on AESDirect.
   Morning and afternoon sessions will be held at UC Berkeley Extension in San Francisco on April 2. A morning session is scheduled for April 10 at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and for April 11 at Gannon University in Erie, Pa. On April 13, morning and afternoon sessions are set for April 13 at the Florida National College in Miami.
   All participants must pre-register and obtain an AESDirect user name and password by logging onto http://www.aesdirect.gov three days prior to the workshops. For more information contact Nannie Clark or Carolyn Hawkins at Census at (301) 457-3539.