On March 14, 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau (Census) published a Final Rule amending the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR) contained in 15 CFR Part 30. These amendments are effective April 5, 2014.

On April 3, 2014, Census published FTR Letter #8 announcing an Informed Compliance period, effective from April 5, 2014 through October 2, 2014, to allow the trade more time to come into compliance with the new requirements. The letter states that, “During this 180 day period the Census Bureau and CBP will use ‘informed compliance’ to educate the trade on the new requirements. During this time, no penalties will be issued for failure to comply with any new requirements found in the March 14, 2013 rule.”

In a follow-up Broadcast message published April 4, 2014, Census also confirmed that the edits and validations in AES for these new EEI data elements will remain off during this period. Additionally, “To mirror the functionality of the AES, AESDirect will be updated to allow users to submit the new and updated data elements, but not require them until the informed compliance period ends.”

Note that penalties may still be issued for violations of regulations that remain unchanged from the FTR published on June 2, 2008.

The Final Rule is available here

FTR Letter #8 can be accessed here