Express Industry Pushing to Eliminate Puerto Rico Export Information Requirements

Electronic Export Information requirements for Puerto Rico treat the territory like a foreign country, unnecessarily burden U.S. shippers and go against the wishes of the Puerto Rican people and government, said Mike Mullen, executive director of the Express Association of America. Speaking on a Jan. 28 call hosted by a Commerce Department advisory committee, Mullen said the EAA spoke with a member of President Joe Biden's transition team in early January about eliminating the filing requirements.

Mullen said the EAA told a top Commerce official that submitting the EEI data is “expensive” and urged the agency to follow through on a proposed rule that would repeal the requirements (see 2012090037). Mullen said the official recognized that reporting the information is a “burden” for companies. “She said the new administration will be discussing the Puerto Rico situation extensively,” Mullen said, adding that “the need for the EEI data will be a part of the mix for that discussion.” A Commerce spokesperson didn't comment.

Of the 59 public comments submitted to the Census Bureau on the removal of the EEI requirements, 31 favored elimination while 28 thought they should remain in place, Mullen told Commerce's Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness (ACSCC). Of those 28, only two represented “allied government users,” Mullen said. The remaining 26 were a combination of private sector interests who Mullen said either studied or made money off the data.

“The bottom line on that is supporting private sector research activity or business operations should not be considered a valid justification for the existence of a federal regulation,” Mullen said. “Especially one that proposes significant cost on other private entities.”

The two government sources who said they need the data to carry out key functions -- the territorial government of the Virgin Islands and the Interior Department's Office of Insular Affairs -- said there is no valid alternative to the EEI data (see 2012040033). But Mullen said the Interior Department is responsible for collecting economic data on other U.S. territories such as Guam, the Marianas and American Samoa, and that the economic statistics on these territories come from analyses from Census' FT895 reports. These reports use non-EEI sourced trade data, Mullen said.

“There are two major conclusions from this analysis,” Mullen said. “One is that census is producing FT895 reports and ... these reports do not rely on the EEI data, so clearly there are other sources of economic data to meet Census’ needs, and EEI could be eliminated. And two, even if the EEI requirement was maintained, the FT895 reports that Census produces are provided monthly or annually, which indicates a monthly reporting of the Puerto Rico and Virgin Island trade transactions would be adequate to support these reports, and that we don’t need a transaction-by-transaction reporting system.”