For shipments going out of the United States (excluding to Canada), the U.S. Census Bureau requires Electronic Export Information (EEI) to be submitted via the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s ACE Portal. The EEI is formerly known as the Shipper’s Export Declaration (SED) form.
Filing is required for:
- Any shipment valued over $2,500 per Schedule B or HTS code. In the majority of cases, the HTS code and Schedule B number match, so the HTS code can be used.** However, in the scenario where a shipment is valued at over $2,500 and is comprised of various commodities with several HTS codes, but none of the HTS codes have a total value of over $2,500, no EEI is required.
- For shipments to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the former Pacific Trust Territories. Although these locations are not considered exports under the Export Administration Regulations, EEI filing determination needs to be made under the Foreign Trade Regulations. (Filing will not be necessary if the aggregated values by HTS code is $2,500 or below).
You can file the Electronic Export Information (EEI) electronically through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection ACE portal at AESDIRECT.Census.Gov. For more information, please refer to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website. You will need to provide Shipwire the Internal Transaction Number (ITN) if you file the EEI yourself as this must appear on the Air Waybill.
All export orders that require an EEI will require you to sign our Power of Attorney form authorizing Shipwire to be your authorized EEI filer should you want Shipwire to do the filing for you. For exports of any value, you must sign our export Terms of Service Addendum.
If you want a better understanding your EEI filing requirements, you can review the Foreign Trade Regulations here.
Difference between a Schedule B and HTS code
Schedule B is the U.S.-specific code for the U.S. government to monitor U.S. exports while the HTS code is used by the U.S. government to identify an item upon import. The U.S. has harmonized Schedule B and HTS codes so that they align and can be used interchangeably. For this reason, Shipwire’s support content mainly uses the term “HTS code.”
Please note that a small portion of Schedule B codes still do not have an HTS equivalent. The HTS codes that cannot be used for EEI can be found here. If your HTS code is on this list, you’ll need to provide the schedule B number for your product.