SMALL EXPORTERS FEEL PINCH FROM SED CHARGES

SMALL EXPORTERS FEEL PINCH FROM SED CHARGES 'Small exporters are scrambling to sign up on the U.S. Census Bureau’s free Internet link to the Automated Export System to avoid a costly $100 charge per paper shipper’s export declaration assessed by ocean carriers.
   The charge, which is part of the Bureau of the Census/Ocean Carrier Agreement to Eliminate Paper Shipper’s Export Declarations, was agreed upon by the carriers in July. Major carrier discussion agreements, such as the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement and the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement, included the $100 charge in their tariff agreements that started Nov. 1.
   “When we made this agreement, we had to have some teeth in it,” said C. Harvey Monk Jr., chief of the Foreign Trade Division at Census. “While this isn’t the best approach to move AES forward, it did achieve some of the results that we were looking for.”
   “Carriers took identifiable steps to convince exporters that this was going to happen,” said a carrier executive at a meeting in Washington this week. “A majority of carriers want out from under the weight of SEDs.”
   Census officials said 47 vessel-operating carriers had signed the agreement, and have provided the agency with lists of 10,000 paper SED-filing exporters. Census has mailed each of these exporters information about how to become part of AES or AESDirect, the agency’s Internet link. Census and carriers said that smaller, less automated exporters, forwarders and consolidators are affected most by the $100 charge.
   Similarly, over 600 non-vessel-operating common carriers want to be part of a Data Entry Center agreement to encourage their customers to file SEDs through AES or AESDirect. To help that effort, some NVOs are charging their customers $50 to $70 to process each paper SED into the system.
   According to the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, the charge could cost the shipping industry as much as $45 million a month.
   “Customs used the methodology on ABI (Automated Broker Interface) that the paper import entries would be handled last. We weren’t hit by a $100 fine,” said Stewart Hauser, president of D. Hauser, a New York-based broker, and president of the New York/New Jersey Foreign Freight Forwarders and Brokers Association, an affiliate of the NCBFAA. “I’m not against automation, but I think it’s unfair.”
   During the summer, exporters processed 80,000 to 90,000 SEDs a month in AESDirect. Last week, the agency received data for about 10,000 shipments in one day from the industry. “Paper is going to eventually fall with those types of numbers,” said Gerard J. Horner, chief of the Automated Export System Branch at Census’ Foreign Trade Division.