Witness Statements from House Subcommittee on Trade Hearing on Customs Issues
On June 17, 2004, the House Ways and Means Committee's Trade Subcommittee held a hearing on the budget authorization for fiscal year (FY) 2005 and FY 2006 for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as on other Customs issues. At this hearing, the subcommittee was addressed by two witnesses and six panelists.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
This is Part II of a two-part series of summaries on this hearing. Part II focuses on the testimony of panelists representing, among others, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the Border Trade Alliance (BTA), and the National Treasury Employees Union.
Highlights of Panelists' Testimony to the Trade Subcommittee
In testimony to the Trade Subcommittee, panelists made the following observations (partial list):
CBP & CITA need to address end of textile and apparel quotas. On behalf of RILA, Michael Laden of Target Customs Brokers, Inc. stated that there are a number of outstanding issues that CBP, along with the Committee for Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA), need to address now so that retailers will have appropriate measures in place beginning when quotas on textile and apparel products are removed for World Trade Organization (WTO) members.
Among other things, Mr. Laden points out that there are some necessary programming changes needed for the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) to be able to handle quota-free entries on January 1, 2005. He contends that importers need to know from CBP as to when the changes for the current requirements will be made, as many importers pre-file their entries.
Mr. Laden also states that CBP needs to address whether it will still require a visa for shipments arriving after January 1, 2005. In addition, he asks when CBP will issue a directive to the ports regarding full integration of all quota categories for WTO member countries.
CBP should work with importing community on anti-transshipment efforts. According to Mr. Laden, another area that continues to concern trade is CBP's enforcement of illegal transshipments. He states that Target, as well as others, would like to work with CBP in partnership, as has been done on security measures, to address issues of illegal transshipments.
C-TPAT SVI should permit querying by company name. On behalf of BTA, Sandra Scott of Yellow-Roadway Corporation stated that trade is concerned with the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) Status Verification Interface (SVI). SVI allows an SVI participant to verify the C-TPAT status of another SVI participant from whom he/she has received an SVI participant ID number. Ms. Scott contends that, in its current design, SVI is flawed in that the user must have access to another company's identification number in order to verify C-TPAT participation. She recommends altering SVI to permit querying by company name.
Verifying whether FAST lanes are faster than regular cargo lanes. Ms. Scott states that the BTA and others in the trade community would like to see statistics from CBP indicating whether Free and Secure Trade (FAST) lane access is indeed faster than using a regular cargo lane. She explains that there is anecdotal evidence suggesting that FAST does not offer carriers the speedy access advertised by CBP. Ms. Scott states that if CBP's statistics indicate that FAST is not resulting in faster crossing times, then the trade is happy to work with CBP to fix these problems. She also recommends posting FAST lane crossing times on CBP's Web site along with the data for non-FAST lane crossing times.
CBP's hiring freeze affecting staffing at Northern Border. On behalf of the National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelley noted that in March 2004 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) put a hold on hiring any additional CBP personnel because an accounting review showed that CBP and ICE might possibly exceed their FY 2004 budgets by more than $1 billion. However, a clarification of the budget indicated that the funding deficit was a result of combining the various border security budgets and no huge funding deficits will materialize.
Despite this, DHS has announced that it will not be hiring any additional CBP personnel for the remainder of FY 2004 because the agencies involved with border security are "fully staffed." Ms. Kelley states that while NTEU acknowledges the recent increase in hiring at CBP, NTEU also is aware of the unfulfilled provisions of the Patriot Act that called for a tripling of staffing on the Northern Border.
Ms. Kelley cites figures provided by DHS that show as of October 2003 there were 1,589 legacy Customs inspectors on the Northern Border, which was only half of the required 3,177. NTEU strongly encourages the committee to provide full authorization to hire the additional 1,588 Northern Border security personnel required by the Patriot Act and currently missing from the Northern Border.
Mr. Laden's testimony (dated 06/15/04) available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=1666
Ms. Scott's testimony (dated 06/15/04) available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=1671
Ms. Kelley's testimony (dated 06/15/04) available athttp://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=1669
List of witnesses and panelists for hearing available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=detail&hearing=152&comm=5