Guidelines for the Imposition and Mitigation of Civil Penalties for Failure to Comply with AES Regulations
On January 2, 2009, CBP issued the long awaited guidelines for the Imposition and Mitigation of Civil Penalties for Failure to Comply with the AES regulations.
On June 2, 2008, Census issued out to Trade amended provisions of the Federal Trade Regulations which mandated the filing of all export shipments through the AES system. The new provisions indicated new penalty amounts for failure to comply with the new regulations. The new penalty amounts were scheduled to go into affect on October 1, 2008; however, CBP had not issued out the new Imposition and Mitigation guidelines that were required, until now.
On February 1, 2009, CBP will start the enforcement of the AES regulations if any of the following occur:
- Failure to file the export information in AES.Late filing of the export information is AES.Failure to file all of the necessary information in AES, or incorrect data, or the failure to comply with other requirements of the FTR.
- Failure of the carrier to provide certain documents or information to CBP.
The new guidelines offer out some important details that everyone involved with the data or the filing of the data needs to take into account.
Penalties will be assessed against any culpable parties. Thus, a Carrier and the USPPI can be assessed separate penalties or the filer and the carrier could each be assessed a separate amount. An AES record filed 10 days after the due date will be considered late and will be assessed a penalty whether or not it was disclosed to the government.
The guidelines presented offer out a penalty mitigation amount starting from First through to Fourth and subsequent recorded offenses along with some examples of mitigating factors.
To help understand the new guidelines we have attached the Customs Bulletin for your review. (Click here to review the Customs Bulletin)
Please take extra caution now with your data that is submitted to the government; ensure 100% accuracy of the data elements as well as the timing of when your data is available.
If you have not done so already, please review your export process and ensure that timeliness and accuracy of all data details can be achieved for each and every shipment.
If BDP’s compliance team can assist you in any way in understanding your timeliness or record keeping responsibilities, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I can be reached by phone, 215-629-8924 or by email, michael.ford@bdpinternational.com.
Michael J. Ford
Vice President Regulatory Compliance and Quality
BDP International
