Census Considering Withdrawing Proposed AES Country of Origin Filing Requirement

The Census Bureau is mulling whether to nix a proposed country of origin reporting requirement in the Automated Export System or to scale back the requirements under a “phased-in” approach that would cause less of a burden for export filers, said Gerry Horner, chief of the agency’s trade regulations branch.

Horner, speaking during a Sept. 12 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting, pointed to the mostly opposing comments Census received on the 2021 proposal. Many commenters said the proposed rule -- which would require U.S. parties filing Electronic Export Information for foreign-produced goods to declare the origin for their item under a new data element in AES (see 2112140033, 2203160026 and 2301230008) -- would impose an unfair time and cost burden, Horner said. He also said the agency was told by industry that the data it would receive through the new requirement would likely be “poor or not complete.”

The comments are “something that we really are sensitive to,” Horner said, “because companies feel that it is going to be a large cost, and they just don't have the capabilities today to do this.” Census management is considering three options, he said, including one that would withdraw the proposed rule. The other two options involve “phasing it in at a smaller level.”