AES Compliance Best Practices

The AES Compliance Best Practices is available in its entirety in the following formats:

• Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf) (247k)
• Microsoft Word Document (.doc) (507k)
  

Overview of the AES Compliance Review Program

In October 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau), Foreign Trade Division (FTD) developed the Automated Export System (AES) Compliance Review Program.  The program seeks to assist companies in correcting reporting practices that are not in compliance with the Foreign Trade Regulations (FTR), Title 15, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 30.  Section 30.10(b) of the FTR authorizes the Census Bureau to visit companies with the purpose of reviewing all documentation pertaining to export transactions.  The ultimate goal of the program is to educate and bring all AES filers into full compliance with the FTR.  Failure to comply with reporting requirements may result in delayed shipments referrals to export enforcement government agencies, civil fines and/or criminal penalties.

The Census Bureau began this project by visiting companies that maintained a compliance rate of  95% or higher to learn their best practices.  The compliance rate is calculated by dividing the number of compliance alerts (designated on the Compliance Report) by the number of shipments, subtracted from 100%.  As a result of these visits, we have compiled this “Best Practices” manual to share with AES filers the variety of effective methods that can be implemented to stay compliant with the FTR reporting requirements.  While this document is not all-inclusive, it does provide several excellent examples of best practices that could assist exporting companies in meeting the FTR compliance standards.