AES Broadcast  02/14/2008          Broadcast  #  2008010

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 Automated Export System (AES) Maintenance Outages

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The AES Education and Production Regions will undergo an extended 
outage for 25 hours beginning at 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) 
Saturday, February 23, 2008. The regions will be restored by 
6:00 PM EST Sunday, February 24, 2008.
         
During these outages, incoming AES shipments will be stored in a queue 
and once the regions are restored processing will continue and messages 
will be returned to the filers.  We strongly encourage you to file your 
shipments prior to these extended outages when possible.
         
The AES Development Team will be updating the software supporting the 
AES application.  This is to be in compliance with industry standards.
         
AES Filers may submit Non-Licensed shipments under the AES Downtime 
Policy during the AES outage.  Licensed shipments must be held until 
the system is restored and an AES Internal Transaction Number (ITN) 
is received.  Once the AES is restored all AES transactions for 
shipments that moved under the AES Downtime Policy must be filed along 
with any new AES transactions.
         
If you utilize the AES Downtime Policy for export, please contact the 
port where you will export from.
         
Please see the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) web site for 
further information on the AES Downtime Policy:
         
http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/export/aes/tech_docs/aestir/june04_intro/june04_downtime_guide.ctt/june04_downtime_guide.doc
         
For further information or questions, contact the U.S. Census Bureau's 
AES Branch at 1-800-549-0595, menu option 1 or at askaes@census.gov.