AES Export Processing for U.S. Customs & Border Protection

21 July 2008

Dear Valued Customer,

U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) will begin enforcing their new AES Rule, effective September 30th 2008. This will require significant changes to the shipment processes for all cargo on vessels that load at ports in the United States. The rule will have an impact on many of our customers, as it requires that both shippers and carriers adopt new disciplines and processes to ensure timely manifesting and loading of cargo.

What does this new rule mean?

• US Shippers are required to provide their ocean carrier partners either the ITN number provided in response to their AES filing with US Census or written notification of their exemption /exclusion status.
• This will need to be provided on a per Bill of Lading basis.

What is APL doing in response to these requirements?

• Develop the operational and commercial processes that will facilitate compliance with the new requirements.
• Identify the specific impact of the regulations on our customers.
• Develop and communicate the deadlines for receipt of manifest information at each load port location.
• Establish protocols for communications with shippers and NVOCCs about ‘load/no-load’ messages from CBP.
• Design new e-commerce products and other systems enhancements to lessen the impact of this new requirement on the flow of cargo.

How will this affect you?

• U.S. shippers or their partner forwarders will need to review their supply chain processes with their sourcing locations and suppliers to ensure that they provide the ITN information to their Ocean Carriers significantly earlier in the shipment process to meet these information cutoff requirements.
• Shippers will face a new ‘ITN cut-off’ well in advance of our current vessel cut-offs. APL must be provided either the ITN number generated as a result of their AES filing with US Census or written notification of their exemption /exclusion status as of this new cut-off. Otherwise CBP will prevent APL from loading the shipment. These cut-offs will be communicated to you over the coming weeks as we work out the operational requirements for each port location.

We will continue to work with CBP to clarify the outstanding issues, and will be communicating with you on the impacts of this new regulation. We will also be providing regular updates through www.apl.com.

In the meantime, if you have specific queries or would like to discuss these requirements, please talk to your local APL Sales or Customer Service representative.

Respectfully yours,

Ted Fordney
Vice President
Global Sales, Marketing and Customer Support