CBP Discusses Pending Report on In-Bond Cargo
On October 4, 2007, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee held a hearing entitled "Security of Our Nation's Seaports."
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The purpose of the hearing was to review the Department of Homeland Security's implementation and administration of several port and cargo security programs authorized in the Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act, the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, and the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2004.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Field Operations testified at the hearing and discussed CBP's pending report on in-bond cargo. (See future issues for additional CBP topics discussed at the hearing.)
June 30th Deadline for SAFE Port Act Report on In-Bond Cargo
The SAFE Port Act required CBP to submit a report on in-bond cargo no later than June 30, 2007. In the testimony, CBP apologized for missing the deadline and stated that the report, which is still undergoing review, is expected to be issued shortly.
CBP testified that the report would include:
a plan for closing in-bond entries at the port of arrival;
an assessment of the personnel required to ensure 100% reconciliation of in-bond entries between the port of arrival and the port of destination or exportation;
an assessment of the status of investigations of overdue in-bond shipments and an evaluation of the resources required to ensure adequate investigation of overdue in-bond shipments;
a plan for tracking in-bond cargo within the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE);
an assessment of whether any particular technologies should be required in the transport of in-bond cargo;
an assessment of whether ports of arrival should require any additional information regarding shipment of in-bond cargo;
an evaluation of the criteria for targeting and examining in-bond cargo; and
an assessment of the feasibility of reducing the transit time for in-bond shipments, including an assessment of the impact of such a change on domestic and international trade.
In addition, CBP is in the process of utilizing the evaluation of in-bond criteria to assist in the creation of a weight set for use in the Automated Targeting System (ATS) to further assist in the identification of potential in-bond diversion cargo shipments.
CBP states that it believes that its report is responsive to the concerns expressed by Congress, and a dedicated working group of experts has just concluded an in-depth review of the in-bond process and their recommendations will also address the report topics.
(The SAFE Port Act of 2006 requires that CBP submit a report to several congressional committees by June 30, 2007, which includes an assessment of whether ports of arrival should require additional information for in-bond cargo, a plan for tracking in-bond cargo in the ACE system, and an assessment of how to ensure 100% reconciliation of in-bond cargo between arrival port and destination port.
The report must also contain an assessment of the feasibility of reducing transit time of in-bond shipments, a plan for closing in-bond entries at the port of arrival, and an evaluation of the criteria for targeting and examining in-bond cargo. See ITT's Online Archives or 10/12/06 news, 06101205, for BP summary of the SAFE Port Act provision on in-bond cargo.)
(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/22/07 news, 07052205, for BP summary of a Government Accountability Office report on previously identified weaknesses in CBP's in-bond system.
See ITT's Online Archives or 10/10/07 news, 07101005, for BP summary of the C-TPAT aspects of CBP's testimony.)
CBP written hearing statement (dated 10/04/07) available at http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/CBPSenateCommerceWrittenStatement100407000.pdf.