Release of Electronic Export Manifest Still 'Down the Road,' Census Official Says

The timeline for the release of CBP’s electronic export manifest system remains unclear despite hopes on the part of some officials that the system would be launched last year (see 1910180061). “I believe it’ll be a little bit down the road,” Kiesha Downs, chief of the Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch, said during a March 10 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “Everybody knows how long it takes to go through the regulatory process.”

Downs said Jim Swanson -- CBP’s director of cargo and security controls and one of the officials leading the export manifest rollout -- has made significant progress. But it remains unclear when the system will become fully operational. Swanson’s team “has been really pushing hard to get the manifest out and up and running, [but] I don’t know when the manifest will be fully electronic,” Downs said. “But I know his team” is providing “daily” updates and “they’re making a lot of movement.”

During a Dec. 4 meeting, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s Export Modernization Working Group recommended CBP increase collaboration with stakeholders and eliminate redundant data requirements as it prepares to launch the system (see 1912020048), which will allow CBP to pull from more complete, updated export information when targeting for violations instead of relying on potentially outdated information in the Automated Export System. The group also recommended that data elements for Electronic Export Information and Manifest filing be “mapped” to define the owners of the data.

Downs said the COAC has conducted “several iterations” of that process. “We’ve gone through what the data elements in AES are used for, how we can match up the elements that are captured in AES and those that are not in the manifest,” she said. “Our hopes are that, as the manifest progresses … hopefully there are some pieces, especially when you’re dealing with the date of export and port of export, where CBP can target off the manifest information as opposed to the AES information.”

The COAC is currently in “phase two” of that process, which has included discussions about a potential “progressive manifest” system, Downs said, in which each party to a transaction inputs the information in the electronic manifest that it is responsible for. The group is working through “who should actually be reporting” what information and “who is the more accountable party,” Downs said. “We’re going through that process now.” She said she is unsure if the progressive manifest system will ultimately be adopted. “I don’t know if that means in the end that they’ll be going through with progressive filing … but I know the discussions are being had right now,” Downs said.