Census Gives Exporters 180-Day 'Informed Compliance' Period for FTR Changes
The Census Bureau will provide the trade community an additional 180 days to come into compliance with the Foreign Trade Regulations revisions that became effective on April 5, Census said in a press release. The rule makes wide-ranging changes to postdeparture filing program and requirements for mandatory filing of export information through the Automated Export System (AES) (see 13031501). During the grace period, Census will not penalize for violations of the regulations changed in the final rule. Census will still penalize for violations of Foreign Trade Regulations that did not change in the final rule. Census and CBP will also use “informed compliance” to educate the trade community on the new requirements during the 180 day period.
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The final rule was due to take effect in January, but Census delayed the effective date to April 5 (see 13110811). The 180 day period will also ensure the edits and validations for the new and updated data elements in AES will remain off until October 2. The data elements in the final rule include changes to the following areas:
- Allows reporting of "unknown/other" in new mandatory ultimate consignee data element
- Revises text in 30.6(a)(9) to clarify that port of export for shipments by overland transportation is where the goods cross the U.S. border into Canada or Mexico, including transshipments
- Clarifies 30.6(a)(5) so that the country of ultimate destination can be where the goods are stored, and so the country of ultimate destination for BIS license exceptions and non-licensed shipments to international waters is the nationality of the person or entity assuming control of items subject to the EAR.
- In section 30.6(a)(19), clarifies that the reuse of shipment reference number is prohibited.
- Edits 30.6(b) to include new conditional filing requirements for reporting license value -- for shipments requiring an export license, report the value on the license that corresponds to the commodity being exported
After April 12, the new data fields will be optional for all modes of filing in AESDirect, as follows:
- License Value -- License value will be allowed for the License Codes set to require License Value under the new FTR
- Ultimate Consignee Type -- Ultimate Consignee Type will be allowed for all EEI and will be added to the profiles database
- Foreign Trade Zone -- The validation for Foreign Trade Zone will accept FTZ numbers that were previously accepted, but if a user enters more than 5 characters, the FTZ will be validated to the new format