Broadcasts:

Subject: AES Commodity Redesign ***Act now to avoid export delays!***


AES Broadcast  05/17/2004             Broadcast  #  20040517


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AES Users, 

The implementation date for AES Commodity Redesign is fast approaching. On June 8, 2004, the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will implement a redesign of the commodity module of the Automated Export System (AES). This Special Edition AES Newsletter is being issued to provide specific dates, times and other helpful hints and tips to assist you with your preparation.

Included are common testing errors experienced by self-programmers, software vendors and service centers; an overview of various business practices that are being modified or eliminated; the Updated Downtime Policy that will be in effect during the AES system outage and a section relating to AESDirect/AESPcLink users.

Be aware that most of the error messages that were warning errors will now be fatal conditions in the commodity redesign. New edits have been added to ensure valid information is reported. Avoid surprises and delays by looking at your current business processes to ensure compliance with the new data requirements. We strongly encourage you to modify your AES software NOW to comply with the June 8, 2004 Commodity Redesign implementation.

Whether your company utilizes a software vendor or service center, or is a self-programmer please begin to test your application in the AES Testing Region to ensure compliance with the AES Commodity Redesign.

Gerard J Horner
Chief, AES Branch
Foreign Trade Division

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

-Programming and Testing
-Clients of Vendors/Service Centers
-Business Practices
-Dates and Times / Downtime Policy
-What AESDirect/AESPcLink Users Should Know
-AES Contact Information

Programming and Testing

Self-programmers/ Software Vendors/Service Centers

Since April 5, 2004, the AES Testing Region has been available for the acceptance of AES records in the new AES Commodity Record Formats. Due to the changes of the commodity formats for both input and output records and to new edits that could result in information rejecting that was previously accepted, it is imperative that companies develop and test their programs prior to the implementation of the AES Commodity Redesign. On June 8, 2004, AES records sent under current commodity formats will be rejected fatally if not modified.

Software vendors and service centers are strongly recommended to either test client data in the AES Testing Region or provide updates of AES software for clients to test.

For the specific details on the new programming requirements, retrieve the AES technical documentation from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/export/aes/tech_docs/

Common Testing Errors
The following examples are the most common testing errors we are discovering in our AES Testing Region.

Response Code: 010

DEC INDICATOR MUST BE Y OR N

Companies filing as a Data Entry Center (DEC) approved by Census to do so, must identify themselves as a DEC filer on the Input A Record with a Y for Yes in the Data Entry Center Indicator data element.

Companies not filing as an approved DEC, must indicate an N for No in that data element.

Response Code: 244

USPPI CONTACT PHN NUMBER FORMAT: NNNNNNNNNN

The contact phone number must be reported as 10 numeric digits followed by 3 spaces. (Format NNNNNNNNNNxxx where N=area code plus 7 digit number and x=space). Do not report dashes, slashes, parentheses, or any other special characters.

Response Code: 325

ULTIMATECONSIGNEECONTACT
PHN NUMBER MUST BE NUMERIC

The contact phone number must be a minimum of 8 numerals, but may be a maximum of 13. Report only foreign country code plus foreign city code plus local number. Do not include the international access code. Space fill any remaining positions. Do not report dashes, slashes, parentheses, or any other special characters.

Response Code: 515

ECCN MUST BE FORMATED NANNN

Be sure that you use the indicated format when reporting Export Control Classification Numbers.

Response Code: 547

BIS EXEMPTION CODE MISSING

Refer to Appendix F, License and License Exemption Type Codes and Reporting Guidelines. When reporting BIS License Code C33 or C32 on the Input CL1 Record, NLR must be reported as the Export License Number/CFR Citation/Authorization Symbol on the Input CL2 Record.

OTHER COMMON ERRORS

When reporting a REPLACE action at the shipment level (SC1 record -
Shipment Filing Action Request Indicator =R), the commodity line level (CL1 record - Line Item Filing Action Request Indicator) must be A for ADD for every line.

Common fatal conditions associated with NO1-NO3 records:

· Ineligible characters - reporting impossible values.

Examples:
Contact Name equal to AAAAAAAAAAAA or *************

Contact Phone Number equal to 7777777777 or 1234567890

Effective with the Redesign a text string is 'ineligible' if it consists of any single character value (alone or repeated). This means any single value reported by itself or in combination with one or more space(s).

In addition, text fields, whether mandatory or optional may not begin with a space.

For example, the following values shall be deemed 'ineligible':
- Leading spaces
- 'X'
- '11111'
- 'A A A A A'
- 'BBB BBB BBB'

Clients of Vendors/Service Centers

The current AES application being used to transmit AES data will become obsolete on June 8, 2004. Therefore, you must obtain updated software. Failure to report without the updated version will result in fatal responses. If your export documentation is not complete, your company will face shipment delays. If you have not received your company's AES update or been in contact with your provider, please address this issue immediately.

Please note that some changes to your databases, such as to bring text fields into compliance, may be required.

If for any reason your company does not expect to be ready, please consider filing your export shipments through the Census Bureau's Free Internet Application, AESDirect at www.aesdirect.gov

Business Practices

· Some of the changes made in the AES Commodity Redesign were done in anticipation of full mandatory AES, including the change in deadline for Option 4 post departure filing to 10 calendar days, rather than 10 business days.

· AES will no longer accept the "Delete then Add" functions to make corrections. Corrections must be performed using the "Change" or "Replace" functions. The "Replace" function allows you to replace a shipment in its entirety while maintaining the original ITN. This will eliminate false late filings created by the previous use of the "Delete and Add" functions.

· A new category of response conditions has been created. A Compliance alert condition is noted when a reporting compliance violation has likely occurred. Examples include late filings and changes to licensed or used vehicles shipments after departure.

· Completely new Appendix A - Commodity Filing Response Messages will provide the narrative text, identify the records involved, give the reason for the condition message and suggest the possible resolution.

· Sanctioned/embargoed countries will be handled differently in the redesign. Instead of AES issuing a warning error, a verify condition will be generated. The company is responsible for verifying that the shipment information is correct as reported and that they have proper documentation for the export.

· Used vehicles will also be handled differently in the redesign. Instead of AES issuing a warning error for invalid VIN format, a verify condition will be generated. The company is responsible for verifying that the shipment information is correct as reported and that they have proper documentation for the export.

· ITN will be removed from the SC2 record and placed in the ES1 - response message output record.

· The ES1 record will include a final disposition indicator that indicates whether the data was Accepted (A) or Rejected (R).

· The ES1 record will include a severity indicator to declare the severity of the condition (F-fatal, W-warning, V-verification, C-compliance alert, and I-informational).

· The new filing requirements will result in more accurate data reported to AES. To do so, most warning errors were converted to Fatal Conditions. Filers business requirements may need to change to prevent the fatal conditions.

Dates and Times

Date and Time Action Comments
April 5, 2004 AES Testing Region Opened for Redesign Testing This region will remain open through AES Outage.
June 4, 2004, 4:00pm EDT Last Licensed Shipment Accepted Prior to AES Outage These include exports of all licensed Shipments (Office of Foreign Assets Control, United States Munitions List (licensed or ITAR exempt), Commerce Control List licensed shipments, and Other Partnership Agency licenses.
June 4, 2004, 11:59pm EDT Last Non-Licensed Shipment Accepted Prior to AES Outage All known shipments to be exported during AES Outage must be reported by this date and time. For shipments you are unable to report, please refer to Updated Downtime Policy section of newsletter.
June 5, 2004, midnight EDT-June 8, 2004, 6:00am EDT AES Outage ( 78 hours maximum ) Incoming queues will be closed and all shipments sent prior to June 5, 2004, midnight EDT will be processed and responses returned to filers. Any replaces, changes, or cancellations not transmitted by the deadlines must be transmitted in the new commodity format once the AES Commodity Redesign is implemented on June 8, 2004, 6:00am EDT.
June 8, 2004, 6:00am EDT AES Commodity Redesign Implemented AES begins to accept live data with new record formats only.

Updated Downtime Policy

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requires that all filers transmit transactions no later than 11:59pm EDT Friday, June 4th for shipments to be exported during the AES outage. Any transactions that cannot be filed by 11:59pm EDT, Friday, June 4th for shipments leaving during the AES outage must follow the downtime policy below.

Cite the following exemption statement on the air waybill, bill of lading, or other commercial documentation: "AES" followed by the external transaction number (XTN) (filer's 9 position ID number followed by a dash and the shipment reference number).

For example: AES 222256789-MIA12345

Once AES is back up on Tuesday, June 8, please begin to file all AES transactions for shipments that moved under the downtime policy and any new AES transactions.

What AESDirect/AESPcLink Users Should Know

We were expecting that this change would be transparent for many AESDirect users. However, during extensive testing we have discovered that AESDirect users might need to clean up data in company profiles and templates so that their transactions are not rejected by the new business edits in AES.

We have made significant changes in the AESDirect edits to clean up some of the invalid situations before transactions are sent to AES, but AESDirect cannot clean up everything and some transactions accepted by AESDirect might be fatally rejected by AES.

For a short term, AESDirect EDI will accept shipments from EDI filers that may generate fatal errors in AES. If this occurs EDI filers have two options:
1. Correct the fatal error in your in-house system and re-submit
2. If option 1 is not possible, use the AESDirect www interface to correct the shipment
and submit to AES from AESDirect.

We are providing a list of the possible problems that you might encounter beginning June 8 and what actions you can take to solve these problems before they occur.

Problem 1: Some users have been filling some fields in their profiles with special characters, such as periods or repeated numbers, letters or special characters just to pass the edit. This is not acceptable and must be replaced with accurate information.

Solution 1: Correct those profiles that contain any of the problems noted above. AES will reject these beginning June 8 unless good complete information is provided.

Problem 2: Some users have been using only the first letter of the person's first name in the contact first name field.

Solution 2: Insert the full first name or replace with the name typically used. For example, instead of J. Doe, enter John Doe.

Problem 3: Some users have templates with profiles that contain the problems noted above.

Solution 3: Review the templates you have stored in AESDirect or AESPcLink and be sure to correct any ineligible characters listed above.

Problem 4: Some EDI Upload filers have used dashes, slashes or parenthesis in the phone number.

Solution 4: EDI Filers must edit their program to remove all dashes, slashes or parentheses from the phone number. AES will only accept numbers in the phone number field, and only 10 positions for the USPPI and forwarder.

Problem 5: If you provide the air waybill number (optional) in the transportation reference number field and the method of transportation is air, the user is keying an unformatted air waybill number.

Solution 5: The air waybill number must be in the following format in the transportation reference number field. NNN-NNNNNNNN Example: 252-39534124

Problem 6: Users are reporting an invalid conveyance name.

Solution 6: Users need to provide the actual name of the carrier moving the cargo out of the country. "Unknown", "airplane", "truck", "vessel" and "train" are unacceptable.

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Contacts:

Randy Mitchell   	                      phone:  415-782-9445
CBP Client Representative               email:	[email protected]

Census AES Branch	                      phone:  1-800-549-0595
	                                  email:  [email protected]