U.S. CUSTOMS, CENSUS SET UP AES INFORMATION CENTER

   U.S. Customs and the Census Bureau have opened an Automated Export System Information Center this week to help filers of shippers export declarations with their questions during the switchover to year 2000.
   At midnight, Dec. 31, Census will permanently shutdown its 30-year-old Automated Export Reporting Program for filing shippers export declarations and replace it with AES.
   AERP filers who have not migrated to AES by Jan. 1 must revert to filing paper export declarations. To date, 181 former AERP filers have switched to AES, with another 77 in the process of agency approval and testing for the new system. About 25 companies have not submitted letters of intent to switch to AES. Another 11 firms, including small exporters and service centers, have opted to use Census’ new Internet export declaration filing service, AESDirect, or have ceased operation, officials said.
   "After concentrated marketing efforts, outreach activities, and
advertising campaigns directed to the trade, many exporters still have
questions about AES," the agencies said. "The AES Information Center was developed to assist filers who have any AES questions."
   Filers are urged to first contact their client representative. If they
do not know their representative, the AES Information Center will provide that information.
   All other filers with AES questions should call one of the following
telephone numbers at Census Data Systems and Collection on (301)
457-3539/3540/3541 or at Customs on (703) 921-7470. The center will operate every business day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. until Jan. 6, 2000. More AES information is also available on the Internet at
https://www.customs.treas.gov or https://www.census.gov.