Decision Coming Soon on Puerto Rico EEI Rule; No Alternative Data Set Found

The Census Bureau hopes to soon announce a final decision on whether it will eliminate export filing requirements for shipments to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, an issue it has considered for months as officials have searched for alternative sources to collect the export data (see 2104230025). But the agency hasn't been able to find a legitimate substitute for the data and seems unlikely to eliminate the restrictions, especially over strong objections by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The data collected from the Electronic Export Information filings requirement is “crucial” for BEA, which needs it to calculate Puerto Rico’s GDP, BEA official Mauricio Ortiz said during Commerce’s Sept. 14 Regulations and Procedure Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “BEA is aware of the concerns about the EEI reporting requirements … but there is currently no substitute for that really good source of economic information,” Ortiz said. “Without the data, or an alternative data source that is in place, tested and verified,” he said, “it's really not going to be possible for BEA to continue to produce accurate, reliable GDP estimates for Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands.”

Ortiz said the agency is open to using other sources of data, if they exist. “But at this point,” he said, “nothing has been provided.” Kiesha Downs, chief of Census’ Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch, said the agency hopes to put out a public statement on the “final direction moving forward” within “the next week or so.”

Census received a mixed bag of feedback (see 2012040033) on the EEI elimination rule but strong support from U.S. shippers and carriers, which said the requirements are unnecessary, costly and a time burden (see 2106250021). Michael Mullen, executive director of the Express Association of America, pointed to comments received by the Interior Department, which suggested there may be an alternative source to collect some data.

But Ortiz said the EEI data is of better quality and suggested the agency may not be able to adequately calculate Puerto Rico's GDP without it. “From BEA’s standpoint, without that data, without an alternative, it makes it very, very difficult, very challenging, to do what we've been requested to,” Ortiz said. The Interior Department ultimately said it “strongly” opposes eliminating the requirements.

Census had hoped to get public comments identifying a more clear, reliable alternative data source, “but we did not get that,” Downs said. “There is no alternative, no substitute that we've identified.”

Mullen, who worked with other members of Commerce’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness to draft a letter to Secretary Gina Raimondo to lobby for the rule (see 2106250021), said he plans to send another letter. “This issue is never going to go away. Never,” he said. “The cost to U.S. business is just too high.”