[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 144 (Thursday, July 25, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 38803]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-18893]
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DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY
Customs Service
Announcement of Outbound Manifest and Shippers Export Declaration
Compliance Workshops
Agency: U.S. Customs Service, Department of Treasury.
Action: Notice of Workshops.
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Summary: This document notifies members of the trade community of the
plans of the Customs Service and the Bureau of Census to implement
significant outreach and educational programs. These programs are
designed to help exporters improve the completeness, timeliness and
accuracy of the outbound manifest and the Shippers Export Declaration
(SED) information they file with Customs. Recent monitoring has
indicated that a significantly low level of compliance exists.
Workshops will be presented by Customs and Census in various ports of
entry during the upcoming months. The locations and times of the
individual workshops will be announced by the local ports at a later
date. Because Customs and Census are committed to being customer-driven
organizations, workshops will be presented prior to the increase of
enforcement efforts.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Customs Service and the Census Bureau
are committed to being customer driven organizations. As such, we are
seeking to notify members of the trade community of the development of
our plans to implement significant outreach and educational programs
designed to improve the completeness, timeliness, and accuracy of
outbound manifest and SED information. In addition, this notice
outlines our plans to inform the trade community of their
responsibilities related to exports.
The Outbound Process is one of the core business processes of the
U.S. Customs Service. This process is designed to facilitate
international trade while achieving the highest degree of compliance
with U.S. export requirements in order to protect the U.S. national
security, its economic interests, and the health and safety of the
American people.
While monitoring the Outbound process the Customs Service, in
cooperation with the Bureau of the Census, compared a sample of
outbound vessel manifests and Shippers Export Declarations (SEDs) with
the actual cargo loaded. Results indicate that a significantly low
level of compliance exists. In many instances, cargo is not being
included on the manifest of the vessel actually carrying it, but rather
on the manifest of a vessel departing later. Exporters, Freight
Forwarders, NVOCCs and Carriers are creating manifests that reflect
only the SEDs that they have at hand, rather than the actual cargo on
the vessel.
In addition, the Customs Service and the Bureau of the Census are
concerned that an increasing number of SEDs are deficient when filed.
The agencies find as many as one out of every two paper SEDs contains
errors of omission or commission.
These practices hinder Customs in its efforts to detect violations
of export laws. They also result in inaccuracies in the trade
statistics. Since these statistics are utilized in sensitive trade
negotiations and important economic policy decisions, accuracy is
critical.
The principal cause of these problems are the failures of exporters
and forwarders to provide complete and accurate SEDs to exporting
carriers prior to exportation. As a result of the Outbound Manifest
Survey, the Customs Service and the Census Bureau jointly issued
Foreign Trade Statistics Regulation letter number 165, dated March 12,
1996 stating our concern and spelling out the responsibilities of the
various parties to the export transactions.
Both the Customs Service and Census Bureau feel that before any
increased enforcement actions are taken, we should instruct the trade
community in their responsibilities at outbound compliance workshops.
The agencies anticipate that such workshops will begin approximately 30
days after release of this notice. These workshops will review problems
currently encountered with the reported data, present general results
of the Outbound Manifest Survey, cover specific outbound regulations
and requirements, provide an overview of the Outbound Process review,
and provide information on the Automated Export System (AES).
In addition, the workshops will outline the specific actions and
programs being developed to increase the level of outbound manifest and
SED compliance. Customs and Census will be presenting these workshops
in various ports of entry during the upcoming months.
After an appropriate period of time, estimated to be 60 days from
the start of the outbound workshops, Customs and Census efforts to
increase manifest and SED compliance will begin. This will allow the
trade community time to review internal document preparation and filing
processes and practices and to implement any necessary changes required
to improve compliance.
Dated: July 3, 1996.
Peter J. Baish,
Outbound Process Owner, U.S. Customs Service.
[FR Doc. 96-18893 Filed 7-24-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4820-02-P
