MANDATORY AES FILING FOR CCL, MUNITIONS EXPORTS SET FOR MARCH

MANDATORY AES FILING FOR CCL, MUNITIONS EXPORTS SET FOR MARCH    The U.S. Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division has issued notice that exporters of shipments subject to the Commerce Control List and the U.S. Munitions List will have to file their export data electronically to the government starting in March 2002.
   The mandatory filing program for these shipments was initiated when Congress passed the Proliferation Prevention Enhancement Act in 1999. The legislation required the Commerce and Treasury secretaries and the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to provide certification to the Senate Foreign Relations and House International Relations Committees that the Customs’ Automated Export System and Census’ Internet AES link, AESDirect, are secure and capable of handling electronic CCL and USML shipment filings. The AES Certification Report was submitted to Congress in June, initiating the 270-day countdown to implementation.
   “We’ve now begun to work on the notice of proposed rulemaking for the final rules concerning CCL and USML filings,” said C. Harvey Monk, Jr., chief of Census’ Foreign Trade Division, based in Suitland, Md.
   Census plans to issue its notice of proposed rulemaking in about 60 days for the industry’s review and comments. By the end of the year, the agency plans to have a final rule in place, giving exporters of CCL and USML shipments 90 days to begin to comply.
   Meanwhile, Census is working with its counterparts at the State Department to eliminate the need to file paper shipper’s export declarations, along with electronic filings, for munitions shipments. The goal is to get the State Department, which regulates munitions exports, to accept just the electronic filings in AES.
   Also, Census will determine whether CCL exports which don’t require a license from Commerce’s Bureau of Export Administration, and those CCL shipments valued at less than $2,500, should also be part of the mandatory filing requirement, Monk said.
   Neither Congress nor the agencies have ruled out the possibility of mandating that all export data be filed through AES. A report to Congress from the secretaries of Commerce, State, Defense, Energy and Treasury, and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency in July 2000 stated that AES and AESDirect were capable of handling all the shipping industry’s export data electronically.
   The House recently passed legislation, H.R. 1646, that calls for mandatory filing of all export data in AES, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is currently reviewing similar bill. “We’re watching the progress of this legislation closely,” Monk said.