28 September 2001

DFAIT Consultative Committee Meeting, 26 September 2001

The CSCB's DFAIT Consultative Committee met in Ottawa on September 26th to discuss issues relating to the implementation of the new Export Import Control System (EICS). This meeting was attended by Elaine Feldman, Director General of the Export and Import Controls Bureau, as well as Barbara Lukeszewicz, Director of Administration and Technology Services and Ian Burney, Director of Trade Controls Policy.

The following are highlights of the meeting:

It was agreed that the tentative target date for implementation of EICS (October 9th) would not be reached and that we need to return to the idea of working towards a number of milestones before a new implementation date is set. These milestones were identified in July and include:

-- all phase I brokers who applied for and were issued with production PKI certificates have successfully connected at least five business days prior to system cut-over (done)
-- all phase I brokers who indicated they wish to apply for permits on the Web have consistently achieved connectivity and successfully applied for and received permits (not yet done)
-- all phase I brokers who have indicated they wish to apply for permits using EDI have consistently achieved connectivity and successfully applied for and received permits via EDI (not yet done)

DFAIT suggested that they work intensively with a group of three brokers (including the CSCB business partner ViaSafe, whose solution will be used by a number of members),to focus on current problems, and CSCB members felt this would relieve some of the frustration of people managing this process in their companies. Once the current difficulties with the test process for both web and EDI are resolved, full-scale testing will resume, the above milestones will be measured with the objective of 5 days of error-free testing with full volume being transmitted, then agreement on a date to go live.

In the meantime, DFAIT will forward to the CSCB a list of problems raised during the test process, each of which has been given a ticket number by DFAIT and assigned a priority. About 20 of more than 300 of these tickets are considered "show stoppers"; about 18 of these have been fixed. We will circulate this list to members as soon as we receive it.

Transition issues were also discussed and CSCB members suggested that perhaps a date around U.S. Thanksgiving might make sense. It was agreed, though, that no date will be arbitrarily assigned for implementation without reference to progress on the milestones identified in July. Concerns raised by the CSCB about transition/contingency plans were noted and DFAIT will get back to us. The committee also received an update on service standards and is looking forward to receiving a service pledge from DFAIT shortly.

The CSCB is grateful to the members of the consultative committee for their ongoing support of this process. We are also grateful to Ms. Lukaszewicz and Mr. Burney for keeping the lines of communication open, and to Ms. Feldman for her willingness to meet with us so early in her tenure with the Bureau, her openness in listening to our business issues, and her commitment to this project as a priority.