Trade Term: Schedule B

Posted on October 24, 2012 by rosannatorres
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You went to mail a shipment and your carrier asked you to provide them a Schedule B number.

What is that? A Schedule B number is a 10-digit number used in the United States to classify physical goods for export to another country. The Schedule B is based on the international Harmonized System of 6-digit commodity classification codes. There is a Schedule B number for every physical product, from paperclips to airplanes.

Why do I need a Schedule B number?  Schedule B numbers are used by the Foreign Trade Division to collect and publish the U.S. export statistics. Schedule B numbers are required to be reported in the Automated Export System when shipments are valued over $2,500 or the item requires a license.

How do I get one? You can find your Schedule B number using the online Schedule B Search. My colleague Justin wrote an earlier blog post on how to use the search.  For even further guidance, watch our training video below.  If you need export classification assistance, email ftd.scheduleb@census.gov or call 1-800-549-0595, Menu Option #2.

Don’t forget! Every physical good has a Schedule B number. Join us in our efforts to maintain accurate trade statistics, and classify your product using the correct Schedule B number. 


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Survey Says…

Posted on October 17, 2012 by rosannatorres
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Tell Us What You Think!

Just a few weeks ago we sent out the 2012 Foreign Trade Division Customer Service Survey. Through this survey, we find out what you think about our customer support tools and services. Your responses gives us an opportunity to understand how we can better assist you in the future.

The Automated Export System (AES) is the electronic filing system that the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have established to process Electronic Export Information. If you have used our tools and services, feedback about your satisfaction is greatly appreciated.

Complete the survey

Please take a few minutes to complete this survey. Your answers will be used solely to help us make informed decisions about improvements to our resources and services. Your feedback will inspire action!

Last day to complete the survey is Wednesday, October 31st.

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Imports and Exports Decrease Slightly in August

Posted on October 11, 2012 by katrinarosen
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By Sean

As some of our most ardent followers probably know already, we just released our August trade statistics.  The numbers indicate that the deficit in goods and services increased from $42.5 billion (revised numbers for July) to $44.2 billion in August.

Exports Decreased to $181.3 Billion While Imports Waned to $225.5 Billion (Goods & Services)

Exports decreased by $1.9 billion due largely to decreases in industrial supplies and materials ($1.2 billion) as well as foods, feeds, and beverages ($1.1 billion).  These decreases were slightly offset by a $0.4 billion increase in capital goods.  The $0.2 decrease in imports is attributed to a decrease in consumer goods ($1.2 billion) and automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($0.8 billion).  It is important to note, however, that there were increases in imports of industrial supplies and materials ($1.5 billion).  For more information, click here.

Exports to India Reach New Heights

In one of our previous blogs, we highlighted India as a National Export Initiative Priority Market and apparently some of you were paying attention because exports to India hit a record high of $2.1 billion in August.  As you can see below, I’ve graphed U.S. exports to India over the past 3 years.  If you would like even more detailed data on the commodities that have experienced the largest gains, I suggest you take advantage of a free trial of USA Trade Online.  This type of detailed data is available not only for India but for our other 233 trading partners as well.  In addition, the U.S. Commercial Service also offers resources for companies that are looking to export to India at export.gov/india.  Happy exporting!

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Survey of Business Owners, Meet the Profile.

Posted on October 3, 2012 by rosannatorres
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By: Ryan

Just recently I learned that in 2007, out of a sample of 198,081 exporting firms (there were 268,526 identified exporters that year), 81.1 percent of the total export value by Hispanic-owned firms within this sample was accounted for by trade with Latin American countries. For nonminority-owned firms, trade with Latin American countries was only 15.1 percent of the total export value. A similar trend can be found in this sample for Asian-owned firms and export trade with Pacific Rim countries.

These statistics on minority-owned exporting firms are straight out of the “Ownership Characteristics of Classifiable U.S. Exporting Firms: 2007” report. This report is a product of the combined data in the 2007 Profile of U.S. Exporting Companies (the Profile) and the 2007 Survey of Business Owners (SBO), the latter of which is conducted every five years as part of the Economic Census. Joining the information in this survey to the Profile allows for exporting firms to be detailed by four additional characteristics that are not in the Profile, namely gender, ethnicity, race, and veteran status. The “Classifiable” firms that the title of the report refers to are non-farming firms that are not publicly owned and are also in-scope for the SBO.

Here are a few quick statistics on classifiable firms versus all firms:

  • The report sample includes 198,081 of the 268,526 identified exporters in 2007
  • 163,419 of the firms in this sample are classifiable firms
  • Classifiable exporters account for 82.5% of identified exporters in 2007 and 17.6% of the total known export value for 2007
  • Classifiable exporters account for only 0.6% of all classifiable firms in the U.S. in 2007
  • Average receipts for classifiable exporting firms in 2007 were $16.8 million, whereas average receipts were $313,689 for classifiable non-exporting firms

The report, which you can find a link to below, largely focuses on how exporting firms within the categories of these four company characteristics perform compared to their non-exporting counterparts. There is an interesting highlights section that contains some of the statistics I referenced here, and plenty more. You’ll also be able to look at the data tables, which detail exporting and non-exporting firms by all categories of the four company characteristics from the SBO, as well as company size and export-destination information from the Profile.

2007 Ownership Characteristics of Classifiable U.S. Exporting Firms Report

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What Is A Used Vehicle?

Posted on September 26, 2012 by rosannatorres
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By: Eric

It is always a great moment when you buy a car. It does not matter if it’s used or the dream car that you always wanted since you were a kid. Even if it has over 100,000 miles, the first time you open its doors, you still get that “new car smell” and treat it as a brand new car. That brings me to today’s topic: how to determine what is a used car in the Automated Export System (AES).

How does AES define a Used Vehicle?

A used vehicle, according to Customs and Border Protection CFR 192.2, is defined as “any self-propelled vehicle the equitable or legal title to which has been transferred by a manufacturer, distributor, or dealer to an ultimate purchaser.”

What does that mean? It means that unless you’re buying a car directly from the manufacturer, it’s used. That’s right, a car coming out of the dealership is used. Another example of a used vehicle (for AES purposes) would be if you bought a vehicle online and have not even seen it physically yet.

Now that you have determined that your car is considered a used vehicle for the AES, what would be required to complete the Electronic Export Information (EEI)?

In AESDirect, you need to select “Yes” under the question “Is this commodity a Used Vehicle?”

Then complete the fields:

  • VIN/Product ID: Provide the Vehicle Identification Number. If not available, you can submit a Product Identification Number for the vehicle.
  • ID Type: Identify the type of identification number reported
  • Vehicle Title Number: Report the title number for the car
  • Vehicle Title State: Indicate the state where the title was issued

If you do not provide this information, the system will not allow you to submit your EEI.

Only certain Schedule B numbers will allow you to report used vehicles and to complete those additional fields. See Rosanna’s post on this.

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A Tool for Foreign Trade Zones

Posted on September 19, 2012 by rosannatorres
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By: Archie

If you want to know why Foreign-Trade Zone programs are important to the U.S. economy, try OFIS.

OFIS stands for Online Foreign-Trade Zone Information System. The program was demonstrated at the 2012 National Association of Foreign Trade Zones (NAFTZ) Spring Seminar in Atlanta, GA and provided valuable industry information on zones, grantees, sites, subzones and Federal Register notices. The website’s easy access, user friendliness and helpful features, saves time when looking up FTZ information.   What a useful tool!

OFIS has a search feature that allows you to enter a keyword or phrase. Furthermore, the system will allow Grantees and Operators to update their information and submit annual reports to the FTZ Board. Under the Department of Commerce, the International Trade Administration-Import Administration is the lead agency for collaborating with the Foreign Trade Zones Board and responsible for maintaining the OFIS website.  It’ s your one-stop shop for FTZ information.

You can visit the OFIS website at: http://ita-web.ita.doc.gov/FTZ/OFISLogin.nsf. Check it out!

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July 2012 Trade Data

Posted on September 11, 2012 by katrinarosen
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By Jeff

For July 2012, the trade deficit in goods and services increased to $42.0 billion from $41.9 billion (revised) in June, as exports decreased more than imports.  Exports decreased to $183.3 billion and imports decreased to $225.3 billion.

July saw record exports of foods, feeds, and beverages ($12.9 billion).  Specifically, July exports of soybeans ($4.1 billion) increased $2.0 billion from June.  On the import side, imports of automotive vehicles, parts, and engines ($26.0 billion) were a record high for the third straight month.    

In anticipation of Manufacturing Day on October 5th, July’s Graph of the Month highlights U.S. exports of manufactured goods.  The graph shows how U.S. exports of manufactured goods have steadily increased since July 2009, on a year-to-date basis.  You can find detailed data on U.S. exports of manufactured goods by visiting USA Trade Online. 

For more highlights and to the view the entire release, check out the data page on the Foreign Trade Division website.

 

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Mobile Application: America’s Economy

Posted on August 29, 2012 by rosannatorres
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Snapshots of the Economy

Download the America’s Economy mobile application! Get quick access to key indicators about the health of the U.S. economy via your mobile device. The app combines statistics from the Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis and Bureau of Labor Statistics to provide a snapshot of our nation’s constantly changing economy and markets.

America’s Economy gives economists, planners, policy makers and everyone 16 key economic indicators.

  • Advance Report Durable Goods
  • New Residential Sales
  • New Residential Construction
  • Business Inventories
  • Advance Monthly Retail Sales
  • Monthly Wholesale Inventories
  • International Trade Balance
  • Unemployment Rate
  • Manufacturers’ Goods
  • Construction Spending
  • Personal Income and Outlays
  • Homeownership Rate
  • Gross Domestic Product
  • Quarterly Financial Report- Retail Trade
  • Quarterly Financial Report- Manufacturing
  • Quarterly Services – Information Sector

 

The app gives you the ability to view trends over the past few years, add alerts to your calendars, and readily share the news on both Facebook and Twitter.

America’s Economy mobile app is available for download on your iPhone or iPad, as well as an Android phone or tablet. For more information on the release of this app, read the news release.

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Reuse of the Shipment Reference Number: Not Allowed

Posted on August 22, 2012 by rosannatorres
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By: Nidaal

Back in March 2011, I wrote Decoding the SRN. Let’s refresh our knowledge of the Shipment Reference Number (SRN) in the Automated Export System (AES). FTR Letter No. 2, is a memorandum that references Section 30.6(a)(19) of the Foreign Trade Regulations which states that the SRN must be unique for every shipment and may not be duplicated.

So, on to the good stuff! Looking back at this first article from 2011, I was a little sad to see that it only received a total of 60 views, particularly since this is such an important topic that needs to resonate to all AES filers.

Because the SRN is the primary identification key for your Electronic Export Information (EEI) record, it is extremely important that the SRN is never duplicated for all new shipments in the AES. Two shipments can never share the same SRN. Make sure that you are reporting a new, unique SRN for every new record in the AES.

When new shipment information is reported with an existing SRN and sent as a “correction”, a few problems will occur:

1) Instead of creating a new AES record for this shipment, the system will simply erase the information in the original transaction and replace it with the new information.

2) A new Internal Transaction Number will not be generated, the original data will be lost and the export trade statistics will be deflated to some degree. If the new EEI record is sent as an “add” or “new transaction”, the AES will reject the shipment because the SRN has already been used before.

3) When the original EEI data is overwritten because of SRN duplication, you are still required to correct the issue. Standard procedure usually involves digging up the original invoices and documentation for the older shipment which was overwritten, retrieving the data in your system and restoring all of the data back to its original state prior to the mistake. And after all of that, you still need to transmit a new EEI for the new shipment information and ensure that it is given a unique SRN.  What a burden!

Those using AESDirect will see messages from the system indicating that the SRN already exists in the AES and questioning whether the shipment is truly a correction to a previously filed shipment.

Avoid errors! Avoid more work! Reusing the SRN can lead to quite an inconvenience as well as a bit of frustration.  Make sure that your SRN is unique for every shipment.

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FTR: Trade Term

Posted on August 15, 2012 by danielcariello
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By Omari

In the Trade Term: EEI, I talked about all the different types of acronyms used in the export trade community. Some of you may still be trying to decipher that acronym-heavy sentence.

This leads me to the Trade Term: FTR.

The FTR stands for the Foreign Trade Regulations, Title 15 Code of Federal Regulations Part 30. It is vitally important that you know your role and responsibility in the export transaction under the authority of the FTR. The FTR sets forth the legislative mandate for reporting your Electronic Export Information (EEI) into the Automated Export System (AES). The FTR includes critical information for all parties involved in the export transaction, such as, but not limited to:

  • Definitions of terms – Shipment, Ultimate Consignee, Carnet, Inbond
  • Responsibilities of parties in a standard and routed export transaction
  • Filing time frames based on the method of transportation from the United States
  • Data elements required in the EEI
  • Guidance for making corrections in the AES
  • Exemptions from filing EEI
  • Penalties

It is so important for you to understand what is required of you to export products from the United States, and the FTR provides that guidance to make sure you get it right the first time.

For more information about the FTR, please call 1-800-549-0595, Menu Option #3.

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