BIS, Census Officials Laud Improved Exporter Access Through ITDS

The International Trade Data System gives the Bureau of Industry and Security control to update Export Control Classification Numbers, create new license type codes and edit both the ECCNs and type codes in the Automated Export System, said BIS Director of Technology Evaluation Gerard Horner at a Nov. 3 Update conference seminar. In lauding ITDS and touting BIS’ response to industry concerns, Horner also said BIS is “ready to build” a BIS license documentation module in AES.

The agency’s 2013 rule (see 13100906) to, among other reforms, revise shipping tolerances in the Export Administration Regulations allowed BIS to “get closer to now programming for license documentation in AES,” said Horner. The 2013 rule implements a 10 percent policy for all shipments. Over the next six months, BIS will roll out a rule to prevent AES from blocking exports that exceed 110 percent of the license. “You are going to just go through smoothly and we will send you back an informational error, letting you know what the balance is left on your license,” he said.

Meanwhile, officials with the Census Bureau, Assistant Division Chief for Trade Regulations Omari Wooden and international trade ombudsman Theresa Gordon, championed more Commerce functions permitted by ITDS. The June 27 deployment of the Automated Commercial Environment allows companies immediate access to the agency’s export reports, something Census may have taken a year to produce in the past, Wooden said. “There’s no time constraints. There’s no ‘OK I only want to run 12 months. I only want to run this amount at a time,’” he said. “Now that the exporter reports are in your control you can pull up any information at any given time over any window of time because now that information is in your control.”

Exporters are now also able to view forwarder filings on their behalf, Wooden continued. “All that information is available,” he said. “So many of you all that are forwarders, keep in mind now that some of your clients are going to be accessing this information to make sure that they’re doing their own internal audits.” The ACE rollout is paving the way for exporters to access the AESDirect online filing system on Nov. 15, and that portal will run concurrently with existing systems for three months, said Gordon.