Census Will Not Provide SED Information to Foreign Governments
The Chief of the Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division (Census) recently issued a letter to the trade community advising that Census will not provide information contained in Shipper's Export Declarations (SEDs) or in Automated Export System (AES) records to foreign governments.
The letter issued by Harvey Monk Jr. indicates that many foreign governments have requested Census to provide copies of SEDs for exports from the United States. The letter states that U.S. law provides that the information contained on SEDs is confidential and may not be disclosed to anyone except the U.S. Principal Party in Interest or their agent and only when such a copy is needed to comply with United States official legal and regulatory export control requirements. Finally, the letter notes that Census is "committed to maintaining the confidentiality of information filed with the U.S. Census Bureau" and "providing this information to foreign governments would be contrary to the national interest as it would seriously impact further attempts to complete the mission of the Census Bureau."
A copy of the letter can be found at the following link: www.census.gov/foreign-trade/regulations/ftsrletters/notice-07052004.pdf.
|posted by Douglas N. Jacobson| Permalink 
