CBP's Details Its FY 2008 Progress in Securing U.S. Borders

The following are highlights from the news release:

C-TPAT enhancements, etc. CBP enhanced the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program by adding Mexican Long Haul Carriers, and Foreign Port Terminal Operators to the program. (Note that CBP has also extended the C-TPAT program to include third party logistics providers (3PLs). See ITT's Online Archives or 10/02/08 news, 08100205, for BP summary.)

In June 2008, mutual recognition arrangements were signed with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Jordan Customs Department (JCD). These arrangements confirm that the C-TPAT, the CBSA Partners in Protection and the JCD Golden List programs have similar minimum security requirements, similar site validation practices, and offer similar benefits.

Also, in FY 2008 C-TPAT added 50 Supply Chain Security Specialists (SCSS) bringing the total to 200. C-TPAT field offices in Houston and Buffalo were added for a total of seven field offices. The program completed 2,317 validations and 1,381 re-validations, which involved 4,210 site visits in 75 foreign countries. Validations were conducted for the first time in China in conjunction with Chinese Customs officials.

31 million entries, $32.5 billion in revenue. CBP continued to process a large volume of commercial imports. Year end analysis of CBP data shows that trade volume is still at a historical high, though growth was mixed for FY 2008 compared to the last five years. Entry counts and revenue collections have dropped slightly to just under 31 million entries with $32.5 billion in revenue collections ($27 billion from duty collections), down from 31.4 million entries and $33 billion in revenue collections last year, while import value showed gains to about $2.2 trillion from just over $2 trillion last fiscal year.

Commercial trade enforcement seizures show sustained growth. More than 19,000 trade enforcement seizures valued at $351 million were initiated, which represented an increase in volume from more than 17,000 seizures recorded in FY 2007, but a slight decrease in seized value from $377 million.

As part of these 19,000 seizures, violations of intellectual property rights (IPR) also totaled 14,700 seizures in FY 2008 with a domestic value of more than $267 million, exceeding the 13,600 seizures valued at $197 million that were recorded in FY 2007. Other seizures included 358 seizures for textiles and wearing apparel for violations of quota/visa requirements valued at $52 million, and 1,262 seizures valued at $3.8 million for unsafe or tainted consumer and agricultural products (not including IPR seizures with secondary import safety violations). Through the end of FY 2008, CBP also initiated 471 commercial fraud penalties assessed at $208 million, a slight increase in volume from last year.

1.5 million agricultural interceptions. Agriculture specialists made 1.5 million agricultural interceptions (meats and plants that are prohibited entry into the U.S.) Through inspection of commodities and seized products, they found more than 158,000 actionable or reportable plant pest interceptions.

Import safety designated as a PTI, etc. CBP established import safety as a priority trade issue, established a dedicated import safety branch, and worked closely with other federal agencies to protect the U.S. public from unsafe, substandard, or contaminated imported products.

CBP and Consumer Product Safety Commission personnel were located at several U.S. ports of entry to improve targeting and information sharing between the agencies. CBP in coordination with Immigration and Customs Enforcement also formed an "Operation Guardian" working group to address import safety related concerns.

CSI. As part of CBP's efforts to secure U.S. ports of entry, it expanded the Container Security Initiative (CSI), increasing participating ports to 58 in FY 2008. CSI now covers 86% of U.S.-bound maritime containers. In addition, CBP launched the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) to help safeguard global maritime cargo.

CBP met 100% scanning pilot mandate. On October 12, 2007, CBP met the legislative requirement to establish a 100% scanning pilot program in three foreign ports as mandated by the Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act of 2006. At that time, SFI became fully operational, scanning 100% of all U.S.-bound containers at Port Qasim, Pakistan; Puerto Cortes, Honduras; and the Port of Southampton, UK. CBP has gone beyond the legislative mandate and is deploying SFI operations on a limited basis to three additional locations: Hong Kong, the Port of Salalah, Oman; and in Busan, South Korea.

108 new RPMs deployed. CBP deployed 108 new radiation portal monitors (RPMs) throughout U.S. ports of entry, bringing the number of RPMs to 1,127 at U.S. land and sea ports of entry. CBP also deployed this system to the air cargo environment.

With all its deployed RPMs, CBP had the capability to scan approximately 100% of all mail and express consignment mail/parcels; approximately 95% of all truck cargo and 86% of the personally owned vehicles entering from Canada; approximately 100% of all truck cargo and 95% of the personally owned vehicles arriving from Mexico; and approximately 98% of all arriving sea-borne containerized cargo for illicit radiological/nuclear materials.

OIT. The Office of International Trade issued over 7,100 binding rulings; closed 1,011 cases regarding tariff, trade and commercial facilitation; provided 215 instances of electronic guidance; answered 959 inquiries from the public, 2,227 inquiries from CBP officers, 68 inquiries from Congress, and 407 inquiries from federal, State and local government; etc.

Workforce increase. The entire workforce increased 11% during FY 2008 to 51,553 from 46,743 during FY 2007. CBP officers increased to a total of 19,726 and agriculture specialists increased to 2,277. This increased the total number of CBP officers by 7% and agriculture specialists by 5%. Border Patrol agent staffing increased by 17%, from 14,923 in FY 2007 to 17,499 at the end of FY 2008.

(See ITT's Online Archives or 11/28/07 news, 07112825, for BP summary of CBP's FY 2007 progress, challenges in securing U.S. borders.)

News release (dated 11/05/08) available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/08year_review.xml