No Timeline for Rule on Puerto Rico EEI Filings, Census Official Says

The Census Bureau is unsure how much longer it needs to decide whether to eliminate export filing requirements for shipments to Puerto Rico, saying it is still reviewing public comments and speaking with industry officials, Puerto Rican researchers and other U.S. agencies that use the data. Perhaps most important, the agency remains unsure whether it can use alternative data sources to compensate for all the information that would no longer be collected if Census decides to nix the Electronic Export Information requirements, said Omari Wooden, a senior Census official.

“I can't give a timeline because I’m not sure,” Wooden said during an April 22 meeting of the Commerce Department’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness. “It would be unfair for me to even make up a time.” Wooden, Census’ assistant division chief for data user and respondent outreach, said the agency is moving methodically because its wants to “make sure that we're making the accurate decision.”

Census proposed removing the requirements in a September pre-rule (see 2009160033) and has been reviewing a mixed bag of feedback since the comment period ended in December. Some industry representatives said the filings are a burden for companies and their elimination is long overdue, while others cautioned Census about removing the requirements, saying it could lead to an absence of a vital source of data collection and damage Puerto Rico’s economy (see 2012040033).

The shipping and forwarding industry has been especially vocal about removing the EEI requirements, saying they unnecessarily cost U.S. companies time and money when exporting goods to U.S. territories. Mike Mullen, executive director of the Express Association of America, said Census should give more “weight” to comments from U.S. industries and focus less on feedback from academics.

“A researcher at the University of Puerto Rico who wants to keep the requirements in place for his own personal reasons to do the research he's doing -- how do you balance that against the response you got from us?” Mullen, a committee member, said during the meeting. He stressed that EAA members -- including DHL, UPS and FedEx -- earn $220 billion a year and employ many people. “An awful lot of responses you got,” Mullen said, were from “private sector individuals who wanted to keep the requirement in place because it helps them with their job, or they were making a profit off it in some way.”

Norman Schenk, a committee member and the president of NT Schenk & Associates, said he doesn’t understand why the data collected from the EEI filings is so vital. “One of the questions that we've asked repeatedly is what value does this data even provide?” Schenk said during the meeting. “Other than, with all due respect, people that do [economic] analysis, we really haven't been told what specific tangible value it provides.”

Wooden said Census has to do its due diligence by considering every comment, adding that the agency would rather move slowly than make a mistake. “[Census official] Kiesha [Downs] and I have both been in situations where we’ve proposed regulatory changes and there was a vocal response to certain changes that we assumed would have been straightforward,” Wooden said. “That's why we're treading lightly through this.”