Commerce Officials to Discuss Routed Export Rule in Hopes of Publishing This Year, Census Official Says

Commerce Department officials will hold discussions with the Office of the General Counsel June 3 to try to make progress on the agency’s long-awaited proposed rules on routed export transactions, said Kiesha Downs, chief of the Census Bureau Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch. The discussions will include OGC’s Office of the Chief Counsel and officials from both Census and the Bureau of Industry and Security as the two agencies try to build on a meeting in March (see 2003100046).

Officials are hopeful the rules will be published this year, but much will depend on the timing of OGC’s approval and other concerns raised by BIS, said Downs, speaking during a June 2 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. “These are major changes that are being proposed in both sets of regulations,” Downs said. “I'm hopeful that after our meeting tomorrow that we can continue to proceed and start the publication process. But to be honest, I don't know what other concerns may pop up.”

The rules, which must be issued simultaneously because of the significant overlap within the rule between BIS and Census, are expected to tackle the process around assigning filing responsibilities to forwarders and address information sharing among parties in routed export transactions (see 1904170064). Downs said Census has “concurrence” on the rules from the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, but is still working through issues with BIS. Among other concerns, officials are trying to ensure that the rules will not impact BIS’s ability to carry out enforcement, Downs said.

“I think the biggest thing that we're trying to iron out … is ensuring that these specific scenarios that may impact enforcement and so forth, that BIS is still able to do what they need,” Downs said. “I'm hoping that the scenarios and the discussion tomorrow will allow us to kind of get to a point where hopefully we're on the same page.”

Once both agencies agree on the rules, Downs estimated, the OGC approval process will take about six weeks. “I think the biggest thing right now is ensuring that BIS assesses that we're all on the same page,” Downs said, “because these are such major changes that are being proposed.”