[Federal Register: March 18, 2005 (Volume 70, Number 52)]
[Notices]
[Page 13167]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18mr05-41]


[[Page 13167]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE


Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

    DOC has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for
clearance the following proposal for collection of information under
the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C. chapter 35).
    Agency: U.S. Census Bureau.
    Title: Shipper's Export Declaration/Automated Export System.
    Form Number(s): 7525-V, AES.
    Agency Approval Number: 0607-0152.
    Type of Request: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Burden: 814,140 hours.
    Number of Respondents: 223,213.
    Avg. Hours Per Response: SED--11 minutes; AES--3 minutes.
    Needs and Uses: The current clearance under Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) Number 0607-0152 covers the paper Shipper's Export
Declaration (SED) 7525-V, and its electronic equivalent, the Automated
Export System (AES) and related documents (e.g., Letter of Intent and
AESDirect Registration and Certification). With this submission the
U.S. Census Bureau (Census Bureau) is requesting continued clearance
for the SED program.
    The Census Bureau will accept the paper SED for only a limited
period of time during the year 2005. This is due to the expected
implementation of mandatory electronic filing of all export
information. This requirement is mandated through Public Law 107-228,
of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act of 2003.
    This law authorizes the Secretary of Commerce with the concurrences
of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to
require all persons who file export information according to Title 13,
United States Code (U.S.C.), Chapter 9, to file such information
through the AES. In June 2004 the Census Bureau and the U.S. Customs
and Border Protection (CBP) implemented the redesign of the commodity
module of the AES in anticipation of the implementation of the
mandatory electronic reporting requirement. Since the implementation of
the AES Commodity Redesign the following changes have taken place
within the AES: Addition of the (1) Routed Transaction Indicator and
the (2) Vehicle Identification Qualifier; and the removal of the (1)
Waiver of Prior Notice and the (2) Date of Arrival indicators. Other
changes that affect corporate business practices include the following:
(1) Corrections must be performed with the ``change'' or ``replace''
functions rather than the ``delete/add'' functions; (2) use of new
compliance alert conditions for late filings (3) changes to licensed or
used vehicle shipments after departure; (4) commodity filing response
messages that provide the text, identification, reason and resolution
for conditional situations; (5) use of a verify condition message for
sanctioned countries rather than the receipt of a warning message; (6)
removal of the Internal Transaction Number (ITN) from the SC2 record
for placement in the ES1 response message output record; and (7)
inclusion of a severity indicator to the ES1 record. In addition to the
changes, most warning error messages were converted to fatal errors.
The revisions should not affect the average three-minute response time
for the completion of the AES record. There will be no changes to the
paper SED, therefore there is no expected change to the existing
eleven-minute response time to complete this form.
    The Census Bureau will allow the trade community to continue using
the paper SED until the actual implementation of the mandatory
electronic filing requirement occurs. This is expected later during the
year 2005. Currently, the Census Bureau is involved in the rulemaking
process that will notify the trade community of the mandatory
requirement for electronic filing.
    The SED form and its electronic equivalent the AES record provide
the means for collecting data on U.S. exports. Title 13, U.S.C.,
Chapter 9, Sections 301-307, mandates the collection of these data. The
regulatory provisions for the collection of these data are contained in
the Foreign Trade Statistics Regulations, Title 15, Code of Federal
Regulations (CFR), Part 30. The official export statistics collected
from these tools provide the basic component for the compilation of the
U.S. position on merchandise trade. These data are an essential
component of the monthly totals on U.S. International Trade in Goods
and Services, a principal economic indicator and primary component of
the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
    The data collected from the SED and the AES record are also used
for export control purposes under Title 50, U.S.C., Export
Administration Act, to detect and prevent the export of certain items
by unauthorized parties or to unauthorized destinations or end users.
    Affected Public: Business or other for-profit.
    Frequency: On occasion.
    Respondent's Obligation: Mandatory.
    Legal Authority: Title 13 U.S.C. Chapter 9; Title 15 CFR Part 30.
    OMB Desk Officer: Susan Schechter, (202) 395-5103.
    Copies of the above information collection proposal can be obtained
by calling or writing Diana Hynek, Departmental Paperwork Clearance
Officer, (202) 482-0266, Department of Commerce, room 6625, 14th and
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230 (or via the Internet at 
dhynek@doc.gov).

    Written comments and recommendations for the proposed information
collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of this notice
to Susan Schechter, OMB Desk Officer either by fax (202-395-7245) or e-
mail (susan_schechter@omb.eop.gov).

    Dated: March 15, 2005.
Madeleine Clayton,
Management Analyst, Office of the Chief Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 05-5426 Filed 3-17-05; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-07-P