Census Bureau Issues Final Rule Amending Foreign Trade Regulations in Response to ACE

May 4, 2017

On April 20, 2017, US Customs and Border Protection released CSMS #17-000226 announcing that the Census Bureau’s International Trade Management Division (ITMD) issued a Final Rule revising several sections of the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR), Title 15, Part 30 to reflect new export requirements resulting from the transition to CBP’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system. The Final Rule also clarifies existing reporting requirements by slightly revising the language of the regulations in a variety of ways.

While there are few substantive changes, the Census Bureau made additional revisions and incorporated provisions to the rule to address comments received on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Revisions, summarized by GKG Law, included below:

Addition of a new “original” Internal Transaction Number (“ITN”) data element in the AES to verify that a filer completed the mandatory filing requirements for split or replaced shipments. This also clarified that succeeding parts of a split shipment do not require an additional EEI record.
Revision of the definition of “Filer” to specify which entity approves the filer to submit Electronic Export Information (“EEI”).
Removal of the definition of the term “Non-Vessel Operating Common Carrier,” and inclusion of the term into the definition of “carrier.”
Inclusion of the requirement that filer name is provided to the U.S. Principal Party in Interest (“USPPI”), in addition to the date of export and the ITN.
Clarification of who should be reported as the USPPI contact in an export transaction to ensure that contact information includes the name of the person who has the most knowledge regarding the specific shipment or related export controls instead of a group or department.
Clarification that the license value reporting requirements for goods that are subject to the ITAR are not applicable to shipments exported under license exemptions.
Removal of appendices B (AES Filing Codes), C (Summary of exemptions), and E and F (the concordance tables) because Census felt that these were originally published in 2008 and accordingly were no longer necessary.
Decision not to require reporting of used electronics, as was originally proposed in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.
Add a general exemption for Country Group E:2 in addition to Country Group E:1 to ensure consistency with the Export Administration Regulations.
Clarification of the term “AESDirect,” to (1) identify the parties that can transmit the Electronic Export Information through the ACE and (2) provide that all regulatory requirements pertaining to the AES also apply to AESDirect.

The Final Rule can be found, in its entirety, on the Federal Register website. For any questions or comments please call Deringer’s Compliance Department at (518) 298-8281 or email compliance@anderinger.com.