AESDirect Outage Notice and AES Downtime Policy

Exporters and Freight Forwarders Using AESDirect to file Electronic Export Information in connection with exports from the U.S. should see the following notice issued by Census. Note the reference to ITAR-controlled shipments.


AES Broadcast 08/12/2010 Broadcast # 2010042

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AESDirect Program Outage

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This message is intended for AESDirect program users only. Due to
severe weather conditions, the power at the AESDirect program site is
down. If you are not an AESDirect program filer, you will not be
affected by this outage.

During this outage all AESDirect program filers may submit shipments
under the AES Downtime Policy. State Department licensable shipments
cannot be exported under the AES Downtime Policy and must be held
until the connection is restored and an Internal Transaction Number (ITN)
is received. Once the connection is restored, all AESDirect program
transactions for shipments that were exported under the AES Downtime
Policy must be filed along with any new AES transactions.

AES PcLink users are encouraged to continue creating and storing
shipments in a queue on their local computer for transmission when
AESDirect is brought back on-line.

If you utilize the AES Downtime Policy for export, please contact the
port where you will export from. In lieu of the AES Proof of Filing
citation, please use the AES Downtime citation which consists of the
phrase AESDOWN, your individual company's Filer ID, followed by the
date.

For example: AESDOWN 123456789 05/10/2010

Please see the U.S. Customs and Border Protection web site
for further information on the AES Downtime Policy:

http://cbp.gov/xp/cgov/trade/automated/aes/tech_docs/aestir/june04_intro/