Obama signs executive order on streamlining the export/import processes

President Barack Obama, Wednesday, issued an executive order setting a Dec. 31, 2016 deadline for more than 40 federal agencies to have their systems ready to regulate import and export transactions through a common, government-wide, data-transmission pipeline.

The International Trade Data System [ITDS], which has been in development for more than a decade, is designed to streamline trade and reduce costs for shippers and the government by eliminating the electronic filing of redundant information to multiple agencies with inspection, revenue-collection and statistical functions related to trade...

ITDS depends on the completion by U.S. Customs and Border Protection of its Automated Commercial Environment, the next-generation enterprise system for interacting with importers, exporters and their agents, and automating internal data analysis for inspection and enforcement purposes. CBP plans to complete the transition from its legacy system and require all transactions to be completed through ACE by Oct. 1, 2016...

This has been excerpted from the 21 February 2014 article by the American Shipper. The White House issued fact sheet is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/02/19/fact-sheet-president-obama-sign-executive-order-streamlining-exportimpor.