In 1986 Foreign Trade Division considered several alternatives for controlling the increasing workload and costs associated with preprocessing and keying operations on the import and export data in Jeffersonville. Among the potential solutions considered were (1) sampling Shipper's Export Declarations (SEDS) with line item values between the reporting exemption level and a specified cutoff value and (2) increasing the reporting exemption level for export shipments from its level of $1000 at that time to some larger value. The effect of the first alternative on the detailed export series in terms of projected number of series no longer published in a particular month is described in a memorandum from Gbur to Walter ("Feasibility of Sampling SEDs under $2500", dated Sept. 10, 1986). Since the potential effect is so devastating, especially for the commodity by country by district by mode of transportation series published in EM522, it was decided instead to increase the reporting exemption level for exports.