How many of you have filed Electronic Export Information (EEI) in the Automated Export System (AES) and you get a fatal error that you cannot resolve, or you resolve it in a way that technically does not fix the problem? In a previous blog, we went over best practices to decrease unresolved fatal errors. Now, let us talk about another option known as a “suppression request.” We will discuss what it is, how you initiate one, and how the outcome will affect your order after a suppression has been processed.

Let’s first define it. A suppression request is the manual removal of an unresolved fatal error for a specific Shipment Reference Number (SRN) that appears in an AES Fatal or Compliance Report. Filers may submit a request for fatal errors to be suppressed via email to ftd.aes.fatal.reports@census.gov or contact the International Trade Call Center at 1-800-549-0595 (option 1).

Suppression requests can only be made for shipments that cannot be corrected. For example, you submitted an EEI record and you received a fatal error for an invalid port of export. Let’s call this shipment #123. However, instead of fixing shipment #123 you created another shipment and corrected the port of export, but the correction is now under shipment #456. You fixed the problem, but the fatal error for shipment #123 still exists. The only way to resolve this is for you to request a suppression for shipment #123. As a result, this shipment will no longer show up on future AES Fatal or Compliance Reports.

We have discussed the definition of a suppression request and walked through a hypothetical situation that would necessitate initiating one. Let us look below at an example of the type of email confirmation you will receive when a suppression request has been processed.

That’s it! No further action is required after receiving this automated email confirmation, as it serves as a record of the suppression for the filer who requested it. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact the International Trade Call Center at 1-800-549-0595 (option 1) for the Trade Data Collection Branch.

For more information on this and other economic data available to you from the Census Bureau, visit the National Economic Census data website available at data.census.gov. For more information about U.S. imports or exports, you can browse international trade data available at USA Trade Online, or contact the Macro Analysis Branch at 1-800-549-0595 (option 4).