Treasury Official Provides Update on ITDS
In June 24, 2008 written testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, Treasury Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax, Trade, and Tariff Policy Skud discussed the International Trade Data System (ITDS), among other things.
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(The Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act of 2006 (Public Law 109- 47) directed the Secretary of the Treasury to oversee the establishment of ITDS, coordinate interagency ITDS participation, etc.
ITDS is a "single-window" system for electronic filing of import/export documentation. ITDS is not a separate computer system, but a suite of functions to be provided through the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). It is being developed and will be operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).)
More Agencies Participating in ITDS, Agency Requirements Have Increased
Skud reports that this year there has been significant improvement in agency participation in ITDS, with 43 agencies participating. (At the passage of the SAFE Port Act, there were only 31 agencies participating.)
In addition, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued policy memorandums requiring: (1) each agency involved in clearing and licensing cargo to designate a senior executive to participate in the ITDS interagency team; and (2) agencies to prepare by November 2007 an ITDS utilization plan. OMB is also tracking each agency's participation in ITDS by establishing milestones and monitoring progress.
ITDS Accomplishments and Challenges
While Treasury will provide a complete status report by the end of 2008, as required by the SAFE Port Act, Skud notes the following ITDS accomplishments and challenges:
Accomplishments
Some ITDS functions are already operational. ITDS agencies are able to obtain, in near real time, detailed information about any importation reported through an electronic filing.
Most information currently required by CBP from importers (entry summary data) is transferred daily from CBP's current processing system to the ACE "Data Warehouse," which ITDS agencies can access through the ACE Portal, a secure web-based interface.
Twenty-five of the agencies participating in ITDS already have access to data on import transactions through the ACE Portal.
CBP has focused its efforts on integrating import safety agencies into ITDS and has been particularly successful in this effort.
As a result of information obtained through ACE/ITDS, the Food Safety Inspection Service increased the amount of ineligible products it removed from commerce 44-fold in 1 year (36,000 to 1.6 million pounds between FY 2005 and FY 2006).
Challenges
Increased agency participation means that fixed ITDS program resources must be spread among more agencies.
There is potential for competition between the resources spent on "establishing a data interchange system" and those devoted to related policy and operational matters. With finite funding available, delays to the completion of the "data interchange system" can put the ultimate success of the program at risk.
Work on harmonizing data among agencies, which is critical for eliminating redundant data demands and is the basis for the entire ITDS concept, has accelerated but is not complete.
ITDS agencies are already able to obtain much detailed import information through the ACE Portal, but are unable to access other data already collected electronically either (1) because the data has not yet been added to the ACE Data Warehouse, or (2) because software for retrieving that data is not fully operational.
The ITDS team is aligning agency data requirements with the World Customs Organization (WCO) standards for transmitting data from traders to governments, but there are not yet firm plans in place for implementing WCO consistent messaging capability in ACE.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 06/26/08 and 06/27/08 news, 08062605 and 08062705, for BP summaries of CBP Commissioner Basham's testimony on other topics at the same Finance Committee hearing.
See ITT's Online Archives or 12/03/07 and 12/04/08 news, 07120310 and 07120410, for Parts I and II of a BP summary of the November 2007 annual ITDS report to Congress, respectively.
See ITT's Online Archives or 06/09/08 news, 08060910, for BP summary of CBP's latest quarterly report to Congress on ACE, which contains a list of issues facing specific agencies in integrating into ITDS.)
Testimony of Treasury Official Skud (dated 06/24/08) available at http://finance.senate.gov/hearings/testimony/2008test/062408tstest.pdf