eSignature Licitness for Vacation Policy in United States

How to eSign a document: e-signature licitness for Vacation Policy in United States

hello and welcome to Star USA training today is Tuesday April 9th and we're talking about electronic export information also known as eii filing this webinar is being recorded the slides materials and the recording will be posted to our website everyone who registered will get an email when that posting goes up so uh it can take a few days for that for that to happen but um you will get the email if you registered for the webinar if you're attending you you'll see it and there is one ncbfaa credit uh for this webinar the code will be provided at the end of the session all participants are currently muted the Q&A feature is available if you have questions and I please strongly encourage you to post your questions in there and I will answer them at the end before we jump in a quick introduction my name is Michael Easton I am the President and general manager of starusa I'm a licensed customs broker and I've been in the business now for officially 20 years as of like three days ago so this is a milestone year for me St say is a Consulting advice training and services firm based out of Northeast Ohio uh we provide in and Outsource trade operations regulatory support policy and procedure writing audits disclosures that sort of thing uh as well as help with all manner of regulatory trade compliance matters so if you need some assistance there feel free to reach out we'd be happy to help you I do have a full slide deck today so hopefully I won't speak too fast um I will be using initialisms various federal agencies and the government loves to use their initialisms so bear with me if you need me to slow down or clarify anything please use the question and answer or chat feature in the software and I will Circle back but I apologizing in advance so when we talk about Eis I think it's important whenever we have these discussions to lay the groundwork through the regulatory lens that's my uh specialty that's where I understand and can distill the government's perspective on these things so we're going to take a look at the federal agencies as well as the Scopes and penalties for eii filing in particular whenever we talk about exports I like to convey that two key facts exporting is a privilege not a right it is not something guaranteed by any document in the US uh Constitution or War Bill of Rights it is as it's a privilege it comes with responsibilities and there are penalties for non-compliance additionally those privileges can be revoked and there are circumstances of uh various agencies revoking export privileges published by the bis they just released an updated version in March of this year so actually like two weeks ago giving us you know more stories of uh companies that have been hit with penalties or had their privileges revoked so it's important to uh realize that exporting is not a guaranteed thing you have to comply with the rules and regulations and secondly you have to be able to demonstrate your compliance there's always a presumption of non-compliance and the way that you combat that presumption is by having documentation to support your your compliance efforts part of compliance is knowing what your role is and Performing that role and when I say Your Role I mean in the context of the regulations there are absolutely rules that you roles that you need to pay attention to as part of a sales transaction whether you're the buyer the seller things like that but from a very perspective make sure that you're adhering to the regulations and covering the basis for your role have an have a comprehensive compliance program in place and keep and maintain your records for at least five years the the general rule of thumb for international trade compliance import or export is five years from the date of the most recent event so five years from the date of export is a common rule of thumb for keeping your records at least five years when we're talking about e we are in the zone of the US Department of Commerce Bureau of census specifically title 15 Commerce and foreign trade that's our export compliance um uh area where we need to follow all the eii rules there are other rules and regulations and other agencies involved with exports and this slide is really just to help you capture some of that uh other perspective when we talk about export controls in contrast to export compliance export controls which are more restrictive we're talking about different agencies we're talking about the bis the ddtc and ofac and regulations such as the export Administration regulations or the itar regulations things uh of that nature but for eii purposes we are strictly focusing on Bureau of census export compliance foreign trade regulations and in particular the the regulatory Citation for that is 15 CFR section 30 this is your FTR these are some of the key references that most of today's information is being pulled from this in combination with my experience in the field uh helps to kind of paint the picture of what your regulatory responsibilities are and how you comply with those so I'll have citations uh scattered throughout the the slides today these are really just to give you a frame of reference and to know where to start looking if you want to go find the information for yourself as always you can send us an email or ask us a question we'll be happy to answer it but it's important to note that we're we're centered on these foreign trade regulations in 15 CFR 30 so under the foreign trade regulations we have to Define what we're talking about when we say export the the word export is defined differently under other regulations under the FTR however we're talking about the sending or or transporting of goods out of the country goods are defined as merchandise supplies raw materials products or any other item that's identified by an HS code the harmonized Tariff system code so if it is a physical item uh it is likely covered under the foreign trade regulations the FTR certain things that are not uh covered under the foreign trade regulations are things like software that is not mass Market software or or other media so things that are like downloadable those are not covered those would not be considered to be Goods certain services are not considered Goods under the FTR and certain forms of information are not part of the foreign trade regulations those things are absolutely covered under the E itar ofac and other regulatory concerns but in the context of the foreign trade regulations we're only focusing on Goods then we talk about Goods or if you need clarification or help you can always email train at sta.org for assistance so we're looking at the foreign trade regulations the the key Vector for maintaining compliance is uh navigating the electronic export information filing this is information that is collected by census to determine International Trade policy trade activity and statistics for determining you know um export import deficits or or surpluses things of that nature it helps it helps really shape our economy in many many different ways and under the foreign trade regulations it states that the electronic export information the eii shall be filed through the AES by the US PPI or authorized agent for all exports of physical Goods we'll get into defining each of those terms but I want to illustrate kind of How It's presented to to the general audience in the regulations the eii is the electronic record of the export transmitted to the Bureau of census Pro statistical reporting and Export control purposes so in addition to the statistical information gathered by the eii this also helps tie in with export control concerns under the E under itar or any other regulatory agency uh that controls exports that information that's provided on the eii does feed into those agencies so it is it is um really just kind of the first step when when considering your exports whether or not you're covered under strictly the Bureau of census foreign trade regulations or if you have adjacent governance for controlled Technologies like dual use Goods or military goods we won't get into those in the scope of this but I wanted to highlight that there is a tie in there the automated export system the AES this is the electronic system where the eei is filed it's filed either by or on behalf of the party exporting the goods uh whether it's from the US Puerto Rico or US Virgin Islands the automated export system is accessed through the automated commercial environment so the AES is in acce and that's where you file the eii I know it is confusing it is alphabet soup but that is that is the world that we live in so for today you'll you'll often hear the terms eii and AES used interchangeably they're not the same thing although it's a it's a distinction Without Really any importance um for what I'm talking about today I'm going to use eii most often to mean specifically the filing information and then I'm going to use AES to mean the system I'm going to make every attempt not to confuse myself or you all in the process okay so who is the US PPI we just said that the eei has to be filed in the AES by the US PPI well the US PPI is a defined in the regulations and they have regulatory responsibilities under the foreign trade regulations the US PPI stands for United States principal partying interest the PPI portion of that principal partying interest is a term that surfaced in the evolution of our export compliance rules and the evolution of the foreign trade regulations in the early 2000s when we moved away from exporter of record that used to be written into the regulations the words exporter record that is no longer a role in the regulations the the exporter of record concept has been deprecated it's no longer in use from a regul regulatory perspective and it has been replaced by United States principal party of Interest us PPI if it helps you understand it better just think of it as the exporter of record but it is specifically defined as the person or legal entity in the United States that receives the primary benefit monetary or otherwise from the export transaction I do not want you to confuse this definition with being paid money by somebody that is then going to uh export the goods themselves the the one of the key pieces of this is that that primary benefit is coming from the export transaction if it is a domestic sale and you don't have a direct role in the actual export transaction you may not be the US PPI knowing whether or not you your involvement in the transaction Rises to the level of ppi is an important element for you to recognize for your business it's going to be unique in each transaction each scenario whether or not you meet this definition but it's important to recognize whether or not you meet this definition because if you do not then the eii requirements the the foreign trade regulations may not apply to you at all you will still have some obligations under the export control regulations which we're not talking about today but under the foreign trade regulations the US PPI has an important regulatory role and if you're not the US PPI then you may not have that same role so who can be the US PPI we're talking about typically either the US manufacturer selling Goods directly to a foreign party the US seller us buyer that's purchasing goods from a US manufacturer for the export sale to to an fppi so there's there's a couple different ways where a company can be a PPI and it may not be always the manufacturer may not always be the seller in the US it depends on how the the transaction set up you can also have other parties like the US order party which is very very uncommon but it does exist in the regulations so the definition is here on the page but it's important to recognize really who's playing which role there are some very rare circumstances where a customs broker may be listed as uh the US PPI uh particularly if they were the Importer of record on entry of goods that were subsequently exported particularly without any modification but it's very very uncommon to have a customs broker be the US PPI most commonly your us ppi is going to be the domestic the US seller who is selling the goods abroad the other regulatory role is or other not the other is the F PPI the foreign principal partying interest this is the party abroad who purchases the goods for export or to whom final delivery or end use will be made this party may be the ultimate con and we'll talk about ultimate con again in a little bit but the fppi is the party who's buying the goods they are the the purchaser they are the sold to party they have a couple of other names and they may or may not be the same as the people that are receiving the goods it is not at all uncommon to have one entity purchase goods and have them shipped to another entity usually for further manufacturing before they take possession of whatever that assembled or or manufactured good is so there's a lot of different ways to consider the fppi but you really want to be looking for who's purchasing the goods unlike the usppi or the authorized agent or the ultimate con the fppi is not a named party on the eii filing there is no box for fppi we'll take a look at that later on but generally speaking the fppi is going to be your buyer and I'm sure that will bring up several questions which I hope to clarify as we go through and if not I will definitely Circle back to as we get near to the end the third and final role that is explicitly defined in the regulations are the authorized agents the authorized agents they are authorized by somebody and who is that person it is one of the PPI there are two PPI us and foreign so one of them will authorize the agent in a non routed transaction the US PPI authorizes the agent in a routed transaction the F PPI the foreign principal party authorizes the agent and this agent is being authorized to file the eii that's their purpose in the context of the regulations the way regulations map to reality can often be uh a little nonlinear but in the context and this is why it's important to kind of have this Baseline in the context of the foreign trade regulations which are the rules rules that you must adhere to the agent is authorized by the usppi and non- routed and by the fppi and routed transactions and they are authorized to file the eii they have no other explicit purpose outside of of that responsibility within the regulations whether or not they have any other contractual obligations or are performing another role adjacent to the transaction as a customs broker as a freight forwarder any of those factors is not considered within the definition of authorized agent authorized agents are responsible for getting a power of attorney written or written authorization from a PPI to file the eii on their behalf the written authorizations if it's not a power of attorney the written authorization should then specify the responsibilities with particularity words to the effect of you are hereby authorized to file the eii for this range of shipments or for shipments to this party y yada in a routed transaction the US PPI would not provide the agent with a power of attorney or written authorization in a routed transaction that's the responsibility of the foreign principal partying interest not the US PBI the authorized agent the filer is responsible for the truth accuracy and compl completeness of the eii except in so far as that party can demonstrate that it reasonably relied on information furnished by the other responsible parties participating in the transaction so there's a little bit of a cya in here for the filers if they are provided incorrect or in accurate information or false information uh or incomplete information by one of the PPI and that information is what gets filed the agent may not be held responsible for that they're only going to be able to file information that's as good as what they've been given I won't spend too much more time on those three roles that are defined in the regulations but we'll see them in practice as we go through there are additional roles that get reported on the eii that don't have specific responsibilities within the context of of the foreign trade regulations these rules are defined and they are in fact entered into the eii filing when that filing is made the ultimate conon which is the party who receives the cargo is going to be reported on the eii the intermediate Cony is the party who may be handling or um temporarily staging the goods or playing a role in the redistribution of the goods would be the intermediate Cony and then the freight forwarder involved in the actual movement of the goods could also be reported in the transaction so these are the three additional roles that do get reported in the eei but don't have responsibilities under the foreign trade regulations and it's also important to understand when an e is required we use What's called the one rule uh that states an eii filing is required when all goods are being sent from one US PPI to one Conan in one country of destination on one conveyance on the same day that is when you file the eii if you have two us ppis if you have two countries of destination those require separate eii filings for each one you would break down the transaction so that you have one in each of these variables and no more than one you have multiple if the shipment broken up into two loads one goes out on Wednesday the next one goes out on Saturday that's two eii filings I just want to be clear on that and it's also important to know when eii needs to get filed for trucks it's 1 hour prior to arrival for rail it's two hours prior to arrival at the border I want to specify there for truck and rail it's 1 hour prior to arrival at the border before it gets before it crosses for vessels it is 24 hours prior to lading aboard the vessel this is one that people get wrong quite often it's not 24 hours prior to vessel departure it's 24 hours prior to the vessels being Laden on board the vessel so that's earlier than many people realize intuitively and for air it's 2 hours prior to departure from the airport doesn't matter when it crosses the Border it doesn't matter any of that stuff but it's two hours prior to departure from the airport and eii is required for all modes of Transport this is in contrast to things like the HMF fee which only applies to vessel shipments or the ISF filing which is only for vessel cargo arriving at a Us Port there are basically for all modes of transport eei is required and the date of exports or the time of export is relevant to the filing if you are shipping through Canada or Mexico to a port in Canada or Mexico so that it can be then exported to Europe or Asia or or some plac South America things like that the date of export is going to be the date it crosses the Border out of the United States it is not the date that it arrives at the destination it's not the date that it gets aboard the vessel in in one of the other country's ports before it gets further exported it's the day it leaves the US so paying attention to those factors will keep you out of trouble some of the common exemptions and exceptions and there were a couple of questions about this in the registrations for the webinar so hopefully this will at least highlight some of the times when you would not file the eii the most common is the Commodities valued under $2,500 per schedule beat if the total value per schedule B number is under $2,500 on that one shipment then an eii is not required you may not manipulate your shipment so that you fall below this threshold so that you can avoid filing Eis when you would otherwise be required uh there's there's you know anti-manipulation rules baked into that $2,500 number but effectively if your threshold is less than $2,500 per schedule b and a schedule B is a harmonized tariff schedule number just schedule b instead of schedule a that identifies your good your grouping of goods falls under that number then you do not have to file an eii and you would write on uh your your paperwork no eii 3.3a or is it 30.7 30.37 uh is candid I think anyways you would you would write the code on there so that the uh the carrier knows that no eii is required will be found for that shipment another common exemption is that the goods are going to Canada if the goods are going to Canada eii is not required the US has a data sharing agreement with the cbsa uh that allows us to gather the same data for Canadian exports as we would get as though we were the ones filing the data ourselves so we can pull the data from cvsa directly and we don't need to have us parties filing the eii for Canada shipments and also there our most significant by volume uh trading partner truck cross that border hundreds of times a day and therefore no e is required for Canada but eii is still required for Mexico even though we have uh just as many shipments give or take AC Crossing that border we also do not need to file eii for tools of trade in their containers if it is a rack or or certain factors that are used to just transport the goods down to or transport the goods to wherever they're going then those and those racks those devices tool of trade are coming back into the us we usually do not file the eii if they're going to be staying permanently in that foreign country then they would be usually considered eligible for filing under eii and then any shipments that are going from a point in Canada or Mexico to another point in that same country uh and just happen to Transit through the us then eii is not required however not exempt these are the exemptions from the exemptions or the exceptions to the exemptions however you want to phrase it uh in every circumstance a licensable shipment if it's licensed by an agency like the bis or under the export Administration regulations if it's licensed by the ddtc under itar if it's a DEA or nuclear Regulatory Commission if there is a license for this shipment you must file the eii regardless of value regardless of whether it's going to Canada regardless of any other factor eii is required for any licensable shipment additionally if it's subject to itar but it's exempt from license requirements so if you have an itar license exception or license exemption then eii is still required for that good you must file the eii for the itar good not true for the E on if there is a license exemption for E good you may not need to file the eii you also need to file eii for any rough diamonds and self-propelled vehicles and there was a question about vehicles in the registrations um that I want to call attention to you must declare to the of export usually I think it's 72 hours prior to departure if you are going to be exporting a vehicle and you must get prior authorization from CBP before that good is allowed to be Laden aboard the vessel before it's allowed to begin its Journey for export you have to you have to prepare the information and submit it not as an eii or not just as an eii at least to CVP directly so that they can uh screen the VIN number or any other factors about the shipment before it's allowed to leave the country so any self-propelled vehicle you can look up definitions for those sorts of things if that's your industry will need to be announced prior to 72 hours prior to departure from the shipping location if they're going to be exported and this is not part of the eii this is separate from the eii itself okay hopefully all we all kind of get the gist of the requirements there penalties for non-compliance we're looking at $10,000 per violation plus forfeiture penalties for any failure to file or filing of M false or misleading information late filings are subject to $1,100 per day not to exceed the $10,000 cap for a failure to file those are for your civil penalties for criminal penalties we're looking at uh starting at $10,000 plus up to five years in prison or both per violation plus forfeiture and then that's for failure to file for furtherance of illegal activity effectively the same penalties uh apply but there are other laws that maybe subject to scrutiny if you know possible violations of other laws not just the foreign trade regulation violations a lot of times these will be coupled with violations of the e or with itar or with ofac forfeiture penalties include forting your your um interest in the goods or or penalties in the amount of your interest in the goods if you do suspect a violation has occurred you can use something called a voluntary self-disclosure a vssd to uh announce or to basically self-report that you have made a violation vsds are are considered a mitigating factor in any penalty proceedings unlike on the import side where prior disclosures are basically prevent the imposition of penalties the voluntary self-disclosures on the export side are only considered a mitigating factor it's still a significant uh way to mitigate your penalty exposure but it's unlikely to to prevent you from receiving penalties entirely uh us is very very protective of export uh controls if it is a clerical error um I believe internal guidance at the uh Bureau of census indicates that the first violation should not exceed $200 uh and the second violation would not exceed $500 and then it kind of scales up from there but clerical violations are different from either systemic negligence or other factors or if there is a licensable or control category to the shipment but if you need help with voluntary self-disclosures highly recommend you talk to an expert before you do anything and if you're interested in reading up on the the factors for vsds there are some regulatory citations for different agencies Down Below on this slide so key takeaways from that section there are three primary roles under the regulations they are the US PPI the fppi and the authorized agent all three of those have explicit roles and responsibilities in the regulations other parties are recorded as part of the eei but they don't have roles and responsibilities under the Rex and the E is required when uh there's more than $2,500 per schedule B the goods are leaving the country by any mode the one rule is met and no exemptions apply that would allow you to not file the eei okay so now we're going to look at some of the the filing methods here um talking about some of the distinctions between routed and non- routed transactions I I do a webinar on routed and non routed transactions that is somewhat similar to what we're talking about today but I won't go into as much detail if you are having trouble understanding the difference between routed and non- routed transactions uh I would recommend taking a look at that webinar it is on our YouTube and our website there are materials all that stuff and then we'll look at self- filing versus Agent filing and those different methods so routed transactions are defined in the foreign trade regulations under 30.3 as a transaction in which the fppi has authorized a US agent to facilitate the export of items and to prepare and file the eii there's an explicit definition the fppi has responsibilities for the eii and the fppi is the one that must authorize the agent filers must be physically located in the US at the time of filing you may not be located abroad so if you're working if your buyer overseas is working with a forwarder that's based out of their home country and they're routing the shipment uh and that forer that they're working with does not have a a party in the US to affect the filing there could be a problem uh because you must be physically located in the US at the time of filing when you make that eii filing so that might be a vector to clarify with your overseas buyers if there are routed transactions and you're working with a foreign based Freight Flor that does not have a US presence non- red transactions which are in direct contrast to routed transactions they are not explicitly defined and are therefore any transaction in which the definition uh of a routed transaction is not met so if we have a transaction in which the fppi has not authorized the agent to file the eii then we don't have a routed transaction therefore we have a non- routed transaction this is also referred to as a standard transaction just a normal you know transaction I'm going to call it non- routed in my lingo here just to keep the contrast clear but in a nonr transaction the responsibility for filing falls to the US PPI and the US PPI may elect to self file or they can use an agent and that's kind of how that works so just to remind you again the eii shall be filed through the AES by the US PPI or the agent and the AES is the system where that information is filed so we routed transaction this is the transaction in which the fppi the foreign principal party has authorized a US agent to facilitate the export and to prepare and file the eii the US ppi's responsibilities are to provide the agent with with the 12 routed data elements identified in 30.3 E1 1- 12 there are 12 specific data elements that the US PPI must provide to the fppi or their agent so that the eii can be filed correctly the US ppi is also responsible for recordkeeping responsibilities what whatever that entails any records relating to that shipment that are covered under that those requirements continuing uh routed transaction here and the fppi is therefore responsible for authorizing the agent and the authorized agent is responsible for receiving and retaining the authorization from the fppi they are responsible for filing the eii and they are responsible for providing evidence of fing to the US PPI they are not required to do so without being requested to to provide it but if the usppi requests evidence of filing the authorized agent is obligated under the regulations to provide evidence of that filing at least in so far as verifying the 12 dat elements that the US PPI provided for that filing the authoriz agents is also responsible for recordkeeping so one note there the US ppi is allows to act as an authorized agent in a rout of transaction you would just get the authorization from the fppi and then you would self file is basically what happens and we'll look at self filing in a moment I know that's a little bit convoluted but I just want to highlight the fact that all three parties have responsibilities in a routed transaction and the extent of responsibilities can vary depending on the type of transaction because in a non red transaction again this is any transaction that's not defined in the regs the US PPI has the responsibility of authorizing the agent or self- filing providing the agent with accurate and timely information adhering to all requirements in 30.6 as well as recordkeeping the fppi has no explicit responsibilities in a non- routed transaction all the responsibilities fall to either the US PPI or the authorized agent and the agent here is responsible for having the authorization from the US PPI in this case because it's non routed the authorization comes from the US PPI they must file the eii and they have to provide evidence of filing to the US PPI in so far as confirming back all of the information that was filed uh on the eii they do not have to give you the AES record that comes out of the AES direct system when you file the EI they don't have to print out that page and give you that full confirmation but they have the obligation of confirming the ITN number and all the factors that were filed to the filed on behalf of that us PPI and then record keeping is as well here when we talk about the information being filed we're looking at it in three different categories there are the mandatory the conditional and the optional mandatory data has to be filed in all cases we're talking about who's sending it where it's going how and when it's going to leave and what it is the conditional data elements apply as the case may be if it is the case then it must be filed the other this includes things like other parties export control information and special exports parameters uh things like foreign trade zones diamonds and vehicles and then optional it would be as the principal parties and interest may require whether it's the fppi or the usppi seal numbers and Equipment numbers going in the difference the distinction in data elements for routed and non- routed for a routed shipment where the fppi is responsible for authorizing the agent to file the US ppi is responsible for providing these 12 data elements on the left I'm not going to go through all these I'm not going to highlight on the on the non- routed side there are 48 specific data elements that are identified in the regulations the ones in blue are the ones that correlate with the 12 on the left this is really just to illustrate some of the differences in what sort of responsibilities we're talking about and what you have to be aware of when you have a non- routed transaction versus a routed transaction I'm not advocating for which one is correct in any particular situation it's going to vary on a transaction by transaction basis but it's important to understand what your responsibilities are and what what you're taking on so the key takeaways from that section um knowing who authorized the agent this is the most critical element in adhering to the regulatory definition of a routed versus a non- routed transaction and you can so that you know who has which responsibility and you can hold those people to those standards and also you want to match your actions to fit your intention the regulations don't care what your intentions were they care about what you did so if you want to have a non-r transaction then you make sure that you are the one authorizing the agent if you want to have a routed transaction make sure that you are having the fppi authorize the agent and those things are conforming to what your intentions were notably the US government does not recognize inco terms as any sort of related uh concept when it comes to eii filing or whose responsibility is what the inco terms are part of the international Chamber of Commerce has no relationship to the US government or our regulations here are some references that you can use to kind of build out and research um how to approach your process for Eis and we can kind of hopefully the the next few slides will will help give us a better Insight but these are some places to start I I will note that much of the census information on their website is outdated by a good margin there's been several updates in Ace and the AES system that make their guidance less helpful than it should be but as always if you get stuck feel free to reach out to us uh self- filing Eis in the AES okay this is a question that I I see people asking me often uh when should I be self fent here's my answer in in a broad simplistic way only self- file the eii when an eii is required when you are the US PPI when it is a non- routed transaction and when you prefer not to use an authorized agent those are the the four criteria that you would want to meet if you're going to file the eii yourself as a US PPI if you have an a shipment that is exempt from filing then do not file the eii if you are not the US PPI do not file the eei if it is a routed transaction do not file the eii unless you've been authorized by the FP to act as an agent I'm not going to get into that but if it's a r of transaction you you probably should not self file the E and if you would prefer to use an authorized agent do not file the eei you don't want to have two records on on the books so and and this kind of compares to when should I not use an authorized agent that's another way to look at this question effectively you're as a US PPI you're deciding between self- filing or using an agent for your non- routed transactions self- filing is for companies and businesses that want to exert the most the highest degree of control over their regulatory environment their responsibilities maintain their compliance I I generally don't recommend that companies do self filing theis it's generally not worth maintaining the degree of responsibility and all of the the just awareness of all the moving parts and also typically as the US PPI you're not involved in the transaction in a way that's particularly suited for being the filer typically the filer is going to be one of the last parties in the transaction to have uh information uh pertaining to the shipment of the goods and you want that party to be the one filing eii so that you don't have a lot of telephone going on but if you are thinking about self- filing Eis I would say you want to have an already established compliance Department that can absorb these additional responsibilities uh and that you want that you have a specific reason to exert that control over this eii filing process whether you've been burned in the past whether you're suspicious or suspect that your buyers might be providing incorrect information you want to maintain uh full visibility on all of that interaction whatever the degree may be but have a reason to be a self filer don't just do it because you feel like it it's generally not cost effective to be the Filer and also self filing requires you to be in direct communication with Transportation Partners to obtain critical facts about the shipment in order to complete the eii and you cannot complete the eii you cannot submit the eii until you have a completed eii so how do you self file if you were to go this route uh and this will give us some insight into what's actually involved in the filing process so there's a little bit benefit there too to be a self filer you must have an EIN an employer identification number or a tax ID number registered with the US government and you must also have an ace exporter account you can apply for an ace exporter account online I will caution everyone that tried to do this this is not like opening account at Microsoft uh and typing in your name or opening account at any other website in the Known World Ace accounts are notoriously challenging to get established and to maintain they're just notoriously difficult don't step into this lightly this is something you want to do on purpose you have a reason and this is why you're going this direction and you're going to commit to making it happen because it can take weeks to get your account authorized or more so the info that you're that is required for filing is broken into four parts when you go into the filing screens and I'm going to show you uh screenshots of the screens I'm going to kind of Breeze through them just because of time but they will be on the slides that you will get after after the session the information is broken into four categories shipment parties Commodities and transportation all these data associated with each of these that needs to be input before the eii can be filed um yeah okay here's a just a quick screenshot of the AES direct system uh the first step step one shipment where you would provide information on the in this case just the facts about the shipment mode of Transport ports of export and loading one thing I will note here is that the departure date is the date of export not the date of shipment uh a lot of us PPI will think that the date it leaves their facility is the date of export it almost never is uh unless you live close to the boorder and it's going by truck or Rail and the departure date is the date is being exported so you have to know that information before you can even get past this stage of the eii filing you cannot uh progress you can save your progress but you cannot progress this is um the other one here is the origin state which is not to be confused with the state of export this is kind of a Converse of the date uh of departure the origin state is where the goods begin their Journey for export so if they're manufactured in Illinois to be exported from Georgia you know 3 or 4 weeks down the road but they're not being used in Georgia they're just kind of sitting in the warehouse until it's time for export uh then the orig state's Illinois here but if they go to another state to be further manufactured uh and then get repackaged and sent out and or parceled out for shipment then the origin state would be wherever that location is step two are the the parties to the transaction screenshot here is for us PPI but also there are four parties that are identified on this same screen lower down that you can't get to from my static slides us PPI ultimate Conan that we talked about before this is the party who is receiving the goods the intermediate Conan which is a party that is using the goods uh in between before they go to the ultimate Conan and then the freight forwarder both the intermed intermediate Cony and the freight forwarder are considered conditional or optional data elements depending on the circumstances of the shipment you can proceed to the next screens without inputting that information but you should be putting the information in if it is relevant to the shipment so there's a little bit of gotcha there notably not listed on the parties to the shipment is the fppi there is no fppi criteria and all the information you need to provide is very similar to what you see on the screen here the third step are the Commodities this is where you input your export information code um uh usually it's it's considered other Goods I believe the code for that is OS but there are several other categories of goods that are pertinent uh that you may need to review then your schedule be your HTS number your description of the goods which need to be sufficient to identify the goods then your quantities uh and so on and so forth if you have a a licensable shipment depending on what you select in that license type code box you may need to provide additional information pertaining to the eccn or to the itar or other agency licenses that may apply to this shipment including the values or the amounts that are being deprecated from the license that might exist and the fourth step here are the transportation facts and this is one of the key reasons why many US PPI should not be the ones filing is because they don't know this information in fact this information may not exist until you know hours before the goods cross across the border it just depends on on what relationship is set up but and what sort of Staff you have to maintain this information if it's being if it's crossing the border at you know 2 a.m. if it's going by truck usually when that happens and you don't don't find out about it until 11:00 p.m. who do you have people on staff that are going to be able to get the information they need complete the eii and get it turned back around to the to the trucking company so they can get their goods across so that information typically is not known sufficiently in advance I guess you wouldn't really need it for the trucking though neither here nor there Transportation information goes there I'm getting so tight on time and I see all the questions so I'm going as fast as I can the last step is submission of the information you are likely to result in either warnings fatal errors or rejections of your filing if you do not have any of those and your filing is accepted you will get an IT and an internal transaction number that number is conveyed to the carrier so that they can cross the border or begin their export there is information on how to navigate that agent filing I'm gonna go fast when should the agent file the agent should file when an eii is required and framing here it's a non- red transaction the US PPI has authorized the agent or in a routed transaction the eii is required and the fppi has authorized the agent those are the two circumstances in which the agent should file either it's a non- routed and they've been authorized by the usppi or it's a routed it's been authorized by the fppi agent filing is far in away the most common method for filing uh spe specifically because they are the last on to have relevant information on the movement of the cargo and that movement of the cargo is relevant and required for the E filing you can have an uninvolved third party be an authorized agent but that has all the same kind of trappings as a self filing where the information is not readily available to that third party so it's not often recommended um but if you've got a specific use case or you want to have specific observation over the filing activity then you would possibly use a third party typically for agent filing the most common way that they they get the information they need is through the shipper letter of instruction the SLI this is a very common document but it takes many forms these the sis were adopted by the for forwarding industry after we transitioned to AES and eii filing from the Legacy s the ship shippers export declaration that was in place in the early 2000s and prior they basically got rid of the SED universe and replaced it with the eii and got rid of all the forms that were associated with that so the forwarding industry made their own forms there is a non-standardized this is not a regulatory form you are not obligated to complete this information although you are obligated to the information that you provide if you provide it it must be true and correct and you must provide information to the filer to some degree whether or not it's this entire form or just pieces of it but when you complete this information this is a stand this is a non-standardized version that the ncbfaa puts out as a model on their website and you should only be completing what you know and you definitely should be saving a copy of what you provide for your own recordkeeping purposes if you have to amend the form after you've already provided it save both copies have that entire that chain of events there if you are not the US PPI you should not be completing this form this is a form for us ppis to complete so if you're not one if you're not the US PPI don't complete sis if you're not sure if the us if you're the US PPI we need to go back to the definitions and make sure that we've kind of covered that regulatory basis of whether or not you're the primary benefit iary for the export transaction and one key part of the agent uh of the SLI forms are the agent authorizations uh which states check here if the US PPI authorizes the above named forwarder to act as its true and lawful agent for the purposes of filing the eii in ance with laws and regulations it does not authorize the forer to determine license Authority or obtain licenses under e or any other licensing agency this box super important if you are the US PPI in a routed transaction you would not check this box because in a routed transaction the fppi is the one that authorizes the agent this box is a box of authorization so as the US PPI you would not check this box for routed transactions there are uh there are many different versions of SLI documents many of the larger forers have their own standardized form that they can import into their systems and Y yada they will all look a little bit different I will provide link to the ncbfaa model with the materials with along with this webinar so you can kind of see what these look like but they do take many different forms and you want to be Lookout on the lookout for this language however it appears because you only want to be checking that box in Spec specific circumstances when it's right for you to do so if you have a standing relationship with the forwarder that acts as your agent then this box should not be required on each shipment so there's different ways that you can stand that up so do not check that box unless this is a non- routed transaction and you are the usbi um I'm breezing through here I'm sorry audit and oversight is extremely important Ace provides reports Ace is the system where the AES lives AES is where you file the eii so in the automated commercial environment you can pull reports that is what the government has on your EIN uh as export activity as well as import activity if you're also using ace For Imports you can use the ace reports to verify the filing activity that's being registered under your EIN I've seen several circumstances where there is export activity uh under one of my clients Ein where they have no knowledge of that shipment they weren't part of that transaction but the forwarder either made a mistake or was doing so maliciously uh and and that was disclosed to the forwarder and Corrections were made and yada yada you can use the a support to verify your data accuracy accuracy and timeliness for your own internal Integrity of what information uh you're providing to to the forwarder whether that or to the to the filer whether that information that you have provided is what was actually reported in the system whether they filed it on timely uh basis whether you're providing it timely timely uh you can measure and report on your export activity so that you can see through the lens of the US government what sort of export activity you're responsible for uh and where your scope of responsibility lies you can have semi-automated delivery of Ace reports to your Ace account and you can pull those on a monthly basis or whatnot auditing and Reporting is a key part of compliance it's often overlooked it's very easy to overlook particularly with smaller exporters that don't understand they have that their that their forwarder is filing this information on their behalf so errors can easily go undetected for years without active use monitoring and interpretation of these reports and if you are a little bit more advanced using your reports already a hot tip for you look for data that's not in the report that should be that's one of the areas where where most even experienced professionals will uh kind of analyze their reports and see their statistics and kind of use it for their internal reporting you know Upstream metrics and y y but they don't pay attention to what's not in there and there could be a whole swath of shipments that you sent out that never got reported and that's probably some version of smuggling or something similar to that where you have exported goods and not properly declared them and there there's a penalty for that uh particularly if it is not disclosed so uh keep that in mind here are some additional references and resources for your use we won't talk about those and here is your ncbfaa code that you can use to get your credit but I want to say thank you to everyone that was on today's webinar there are some great questions in here and uh I will attempt to email people that have submitted questions after the fact uh as long as I have your name if I don't have your name or I didn't get your get to your question please feel free to send us an email uh and we I would be happy to take a look at it and try and provide more context I know it can get convoluted I know there's a lot of information and I appreciate everyone's patience today thank you very much have a good day