FMC DECLINES FURTHER ACTION ON CARRIERS? SED FEES

FMC DECLINES FURTHER ACTION ON CARRIERSÆ SED FEES    The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has declined further action on ocean carriers’ $100 charge to handle shippers’ export declarations.
'    The FMC, in an open meeting Thursday, unanimously agreed that the fees are no longer a major problem and was unconvinced that the fees for paper filings are unreasonable or have an adverse effect on exporters.
   'Ocean carriers set the fee in their tariffs last year after they negotiated an agreement with the U.S. Census Bureau to encourage exporters and freight forwarders to file their SEDs electronically through the government’s Automated Export System (AES).
   The FMC said it had no evidence that the uniform fees were posted in a discriminatory manner, and that the carriers were abusing their agreement authority under the antitrust laws.
   The FMC posed a number of questions to exporters, customs brokers and forwarders and received no responses.
   The FMC also met with Census Bureau officials, who said that 90-95 percent of all filings are now done electronically through AES, rather than through the old paper filing system.
   The impact of the fees “is lessening every month” because of declining paper filings, said FMC’s general counsel Tom Panebianco.
   'The Census Bureau also said it received no complaints regarding the AES filings.
   Also, the FMC noted the U.S. House of Representatives is poised to enact legislation introduced by Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., to make electronic filing of SEDs through the AES mandatory.