CBP Commissioner Discusses His Trade Vision at Internal Conference

(CBP’s last trade conference was held in 2008. The conference, entitled “One CBP: Enhancing the Trade Mission through Modernization, Enforcement, and Collaboration,” is being held on June 22-25. The conference brings nearly 200 CBP trade policy makers and field managers together to openly discuss new and changing policies as well as the agency’s trade vision for the future. The conference will focus on CBP’s strategic goals for trade enforcement and facilitation as well as modernization and collaboration efforts that support the trade mission.)

Bersin Presented Attendees with Two Propositions

The Commissioner presented audience members with two propositions to consider:

Trade and security can no longer be seen as opposites. The first is that trade is key to national prosperity and economic competitiveness. He said that CBP cannot see trade and security as being opposed to one another. National security encompasses not only physical security, but also U.S. national economic prosperity.

Risk management. CBP’s job is to keep dangerous people and things out of the U.S. at the physical border and the best way that CBP can do that is by the risk management that has been instituted across CBP. For example, the National Targeting Center gives CBP the ability to distinguish between dangerous people and dangerous things and trusted partners.

Field Ops. Also, CBP cannot see the job of field operations as being divorced from the national security requirements of economic competitiveness and national economic prosperity.

The border must be pushed back in distance and time. His second proposition addressed facilitation. Bersin stated that securing flows of people and passengers and cargo and things is key to the success of CBP’s integrated mission.

CBP’s function is to keep dangerous people and dangerous things away from the U.S. homeland. CBP needs to do that in a timely manner. The earlier CBP discovers things that it wants to identify as being risky, the better off CBP is, and the further away from U.S. physical boundaries, the better off U.S. citizens will be.

This requires CBP to see borders as flows of goods of people from across the world moving towards the U.S. homeland and make the distinction between dangerous people and dangerous things and lawful traffic and trade as far away and as far back in time as possible. Strengthening and refining or changing the current programs will help CBP achieve its mission of seeing flows.

Bersin Wants Grand Bargain -- Increased Trade Facilitation for More Information

Bersin is also proposing a “grand bargain” with the trade -- the more information they give CBP, CBP will (1) use that information in accordance with the ground rules in which it was given to them (maintain confidentiality) and will not misuse the data, and (2) move the traffic that is lawful and trusted. This will allow CBP to allocate its resources in a more efficient manner.

CBP is Going to be Open and Willing to Listen to Trade

Bersin said that he has been telling the trade at events that CBP is going to be open and willing to listen to the trade. CBP will not always agree with the trade, but it needs to engage with the trade. There needs to be a partnership with PGAs, foreign governments, and most importantly with the private sector.

CBP Needs to be Prepared to be More Transparent and Collaborative

Bersin added that CBP needs to be prepared to be more transparent and more collaborative. CBP needs to, to the amount permitted by law or regulation, give advance indication of directions CBP is moving in and thoughts that it has about regulations, policies, procedures, protocols, and processes. CBP also needs to be prepared to make mid-course corrections when its methods are shown to fall short.

CBP Will Prioritize the Development of Single Face at the Border

Bersin added CBP is the executive agent for over 45 other U.S. government agencies.

He said that principal partnerships are in place with key U.S. government agencies, such as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. He noted that the CBP/FDA relationship may be in the most need of repair.

CBP has a conference planned for the fall on how to build a single face for the U.S. government at ports of entry.

CBP Needs to Reassure PGAs that ACE Can Succeed as a Portal

CBP needs to look at how at how ACE has been organized and needs to develop a better process to define the releases and move forward. CBP needs to reassure PGAs that it respects their regulatory requirements and CBP can build ACE to be the single U.S. government agency portal that it was meant to be.

The ACE portal needs to be able to receive data and use that data to permit a coordinated approach to U.S. importers and exporters. There cannot be an uncoordinated series of inspections or detentions or seizures at the ports of entry; there needs to be a coordinated approach to handling such goods.

(See ITT’s Online Archive or 06/08/10 news, 10060817, for BP summary of Bersin’s first major speech to the trade community.)