Commerce Considering Removing AES Filing Requirements for Exports to Puerto Rico, Official Says

The Commerce Department is drafting a rule to remove certain filing requirements for exporters shipping goods to Puerto Rico, said Kiesha Downs, chief of the Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch. Puerto Rico has lobbied Commerce to remove the requirements for “years,” saying it overly burdens parties with unnecessary electronic export information filings in the Automated Export System, Downs said. “We do understand the burden it may be causing,” Downs said during a March 10 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “Sometimes Puerto Rico feels like they are being treated differently.”

Although Commerce is drafting the rule, the agency has not decided whether to follow through on it, Downs said. Before making the change, Commerce must find another way to collect the data it receives from the mandatory AES filings, which she said helps determine the island’s gross domestic product and serves a “statistical need.” But Puerto Rico, including its governor, has told the administration the data collection is “no longer needed,” Downs said. She added that the Census Bureau “is not opposed to eliminating it from the AES filing requirements” if it can adequately source its data from somewhere else.

The rule -- which, if issued, will be released first as an advance notice of proposed rulemaking -- will solicit comments on alternative sources of data and the impact the change will have on industry, Downs said. And although the change will likely make it easier to export to Puerto Rico, Downs stressed that the rule would be difficult to reverse. “Once it’s gone out of AES, it’s gone,” she said. “The cost to bring it back would be pretty significant.”