U.S. Exporters Say Customs and Carriers Not on Same Page

(Logistics Management – Patrick Burnson)

Shippers are still complaining about the confusion caused by Customs & Border Protection enforcement policies. While the economy took center stage at last week’s annual meeting of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (Agtc) in San Francisco, shippers were also expressing considerable concern about the New Automated Export System Regulations (AES).

“We are doing everything in our power to comply,” said Don Lake, an executive with Dunavant Cotton, “But without industry standards, it’s still difficult to avoid getting in trouble with Customs.”

Currently, The Customs and Border [Protection] (CBP) guidance is broken into various categories of non-compliance including non-filing and late-filing. U.S. cotton shippers are fine with this, said Dunavant, but other aspects of the law have been problematic. “Many of us don’t know the correct value of the shipment in time to meet the carrier deadline for proof of AES filing,” he said. “And as containers are often rolled, and it can be difficult to track containers and update AES accordingly.” Read more here.