Mandatory AES starts today

Mandatory AES starts today The U.S. Census Bureau today will begin implementing rules for mandatory electronic filing of export information by U.S. exporters and freight forwarders.
   The export documentation must be filed prior to loading or departure, depending on the mode of transport.
   The Commerce Department agency in early June issued the final regulation requiring all shippers’ export declarations for shipments valued at $2,500 or above to be filed via its Automated Export System. The rules went into effect on July 2 and now companies will be monitored for their compliance.
   The Census Bureau uses the information to compile the nation’s trade statistics and U.S. Customs and Border Protection uses it to enforce export control laws.
   The regulation increases civil and criminal penalties for those who fail to file or do so inaccurately, but questions remain about how those penalties will be meted out. Maximum civil penalties are $10,000 per violation for failure to file and up to $1,000 for making false statements. Criminal penalties can reach $10,000 and up to five years in prison. How the penalty range will be applied for first, second and third violations and other situations is still unclear.

Monk

   Harvey Monk, assistant director for economic operations at Census, said at an industry conference in Washington last week that CBP Commissioner Ralph Basham was reviewing draft penalty guidelines and that they will be posted soon on the CBP Web site.
   CBP has primary responsibility for issuing penalties for export violations discovered at the border. Census will review each exporter’s filings on a monthly basis and help educate them on how to correct recurring mistakes with their documentation, Monk said. Companies that refuse to comply may be referred to the Bureau of Industry and Security, but he acknowledged that referrals would be selective because the Office of Export Enforcement does not have the capacity to handle a lot of extra cases.
   The Census Bureau’s Foreign Trade Division has spent the summer conducting training sessions, webinars, port visits and other outreach to help members of the trade industry that still file paper export declarations to transition to the electronic system. Wednesday, it will conduct a compliance seminar in Spanish on the southern border.
   Ocean carriers are experiencing some difficulty rearranging their business models to accommodate the new rule, Monk said. Electronic shippers export declarations (SED) are required to be filed 24 hours prior to vessel loading and carriers are now in the position of having to instruct forwarders and exporters about getting advance confirmation that filing has been completed so that shipments can still be loaded on time, he said.
   The new AES rulemaking also maintained the moratorium on post-departure filing of SEDs, which CBP sought to eliminate because of concerns that it was a loophole for illegal exports. The freeze means that roughly 1,800 companies already eligible for so-called Option 4 filing can continue to submit export information up to 10 days after departure, but the program will not be expanded to new companies.
Agricultural and other bulk shippers in particular like the post-departure option because the value, weight or quantity of a shipment isn’t fully calculated or available until it is loaded on a vessel.
   Monk gently chastised the trade community for not doing more to retain Option 4 privileges
   “I’d hoped we’d have gotten more support from the trade during the rulemaking process,” he said at the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America conference.
   Monk said he recently sent a letter to CBP to reopen negotiations on how to deal with Option 4 and that Census has identified some small errors or issues that can be cleaned up in the existing rules that may help move the talks forward. ' Eric Kulisch