The U.S. Census Bureau on Aug. 20 released trouble-shooting techniques to resolve frequent Fatal Error notification issues in the Automated Export System (AES). Fatal Errors occur when a shipment is rejected in AES.

The Census Bureau changed two Port of Export names on Aug. 21. The Otay Mesa, Calif. port will now be named San Ysidro, Calif. (Port of Export Code 2504). The Otay Mesa Station, Calif. port will now be named Otay Mesa, Calif. (Port of Export Code 2506). For more information, contact the Census’s AES Branch at askaes@census.gov, www.census.gov/trade, or blogs.census.gov/globalreach.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative should continue to prioritize Japanese pork tariff elimination in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but should also not lose sight of insisting on the removal of the Japanese Gate Price, said National Pork Producers Council President Howard Hill in an Aug. 14 letter to USTR Michael Froman and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The Gate Price system is a price monitoring system that addresses the country's different pork tariff rates, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says (here). Japanese officials continue to enforce a protectionist non-tariff trade barrier through the system, said Hill. So far in the negotiations, the Japanese have been unwilling to concede both comprehensive pork tariff elimination and the Gate Price removal, said Hill. “There are compelling factors in Japan that weigh strongly in favor of abolishing the Gate Price,” Hill added. “There is a long history of fraud and criminal activity surrounding the Gate Price -- with some Japanese importers inflating invoices to prices above the Gate Price to minimize import duties -- that has been well documented in the Japanese press.”

Export subsidies ultimately damage economies by funneling production into export channels and depriving the domestic markets of production, said visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute Timothy Carney in an Aug. 12 column in The Washington Examiner calling for Congress to permit the Export-Import Bank to expire. Lawmakers remain at loggerheads over reauthorization legislation as a Sept. 30 expiration looms (see 14080509). The Chinese government deprives its economy of a potential three percent gain through its export subsidies, said Carney, citing a London School of Economics paper from 2012 (here). “Loan guarantees for exports -- Ex-Im’s biggest product -- move private banks away from financing businesses that serve the domestic market, and toward businesses that export,” said Carney. Also, “when exporters are subsidized, they use up more materials, real estate, financing, equipment, and services than they otherwise would. This increased demand means the unsubsidized businesses face higher prices for the same materials, real estate, financing, equipment, and services.”

U.S. companies that have traditionally exported items controlled by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to known end-users should invariably be able to export those same items to the same end-users under the Commerce Control List (CCL) “600 series” without a problem if the items are transferred between the lists, said Director of the Office of Conventional Arms Threat Reduction at the Department of State, Ann Ganzer, at the 2014 Update conference in Washington, D.C. “We have to review them, but if it’s something that we’ve seen before and that we have a licensing history on the ITAR side, it should be pretty smooth on the dual use side, unless something’s changed in that country, as always,” she added. The State Department is currently denying export transactions that are determined to aid the Russian military, in light of the ongoing turmoil in Ukraine, but that situation remains “fluid” and regulations may change in the future, Ganzer said.

The Automated Export System (AES) will undergo a scheduled outage on Aug. 2 from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. for required maintenance, the Census Bureau said in a July 23 broadcast. The outage will only impact AESDirect program users. During the hour-long outage, the AESDirect system will not be available for Electronic Export Information filing. The AES Downtime Policy will not be put into effect for the outage, and Census encourages program users to file shipments prior to the outage. Census also encourages AESPcLink users to store shipments for transmission when AESDirect is active again following the outage.

The Census Bureau updated the Harmonized Tariff Schedule in the Automated Export System (AES). The system will accept shipments with outdated codes during a 30-day grace period following the expiration date of the code. After that period concludes, AES will generate a fatal error message when outdated codes are filed. AESDirect will also accept shipments during the grace period. AESPcLink users need to update their AESDirect code tables to reflect the changes, Census said. Exporters are able to download the HTS table (here) and the current list of HTS codes that are invalid for AES (here).

The U.S. Census Bureau on June 20 released trouble-shooting techniques to resolve frequent Fatal Error notification issues in the Automated Export System (AES). Fatal Errors occur when a shipment is rejected in AES.

The Automated Export System Direct (AESDirect) has been restored and the AES Downtime Policy is deactivated following an AESDirect outage on July 11, the Census Bureau said in a notification. Exporters must file Electronic Export Information for products shipped during the Downtime Policy, along with any new AES filings, in order to receive an Internal Transaction Number. Census officials as of July 11 were still trying to improve the AESDirect response message backlog that resulted from the outage. Exporters that filed shipments after Census resolved the outage received a Compliance Alert, Census said.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) lowered the antidumping and countervailing duty rates on U.S.-imported chicken products, effective July 9, the agency said in a statement. MOFCOM adjusted the duty margins and subsidy rates to comply with the results of a recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling. The WTO in September said Chinese duties on U.S. chicken “broiler” products were in violation of WTO agreements (see 13092616). MOFCOM reiterated, however, its position that U.S. dumping caused harm to Chinese industry, following another investigation. The Chinese antidumping duties will now range from 46.6 percent to 73.8 percent on imports from U.S. suppliers, a significant dip from the previous 50.4-105.4 percent levy, said Reuters in its coverage of the MOFCOM announcement (here).