Census Still Mulling New AES Filing Requirement, Routed Export Rule

The Census Bureau is still deciding whether to introduce a country of origin reporting requirement in the Automated Export System despite receiving mostly opposing comments on the proposal, with trade groups saying the change could lead to costly compliance challenges (see 2203160026 and 2301230008). Gerry Horner, chief of the agency’s trade regulations branch, said the division should be meeting with upper management “very soon” to decide on the best path forward.

Census proposed the new data element in 2021, saying it would help the U.S. better collect foreign trade statistics by requiring U.S. exporters of foreign-produced goods to declare the origin for their item in AES (see 2112140033). Horner, speaking during a Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee this week, said Census received about 30 submissions from industry on the proposed change, but those submissions included “over 140 unique comments.”

“So if you're wondering why it's been taking so long, we've been going through and measuring and counting all the unique comments,” Horner said. “We're weighing our options on what to do.”

Horner also said Census’ long-awaited routed export rule is still on hold because the Bureau of Industry and Security is busy implementing Russia-related export controls. Commerce officials said last year they were hopeful the agency would soon make progress on the rule (see 2209130034), a joint effort by Census and BIS that could include changes to the process around assigning filing responsibilities and information sharing among parties in routed export transactions (see 2006020049).

“I feel there's only about two or three critical issues that need to be ironed out,” Horner said. “When resources become available, we will address it.”