COAC Seeks Chance to Review Results of Combined ISA/C-TPAT Pilot before CBP Sets Requirements
The Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) should be allowed to review results of a trusted trader pilot combining the Importer Self Assessment (ISA) and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) before the agency issues the final trader program requirements, the group said in a recommendation to CBP at the May 22 COAC meeting. The COAC trusted trader subcommittee said the group should get a chance to provide input on the program "in its entirety" before COAC decides whether to endorse the program, the recommendation said. There's some uncertainty within the trusted trader subcommittee of the COAC over plans to combine, said COAC member George Weise from Sandler & Travis Trade Advisory Services during the meeting.
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ISA is much "more controversial" than the C-TPAT program and there may be other indicators of business compliance other than ISA membership, said Weise. CBP plans to begin a pilot program that would consolidate the two trusted trader programs by September (see 13052032). The trusted trader subcommittee has expressed some reservations about putting the two programs together as a prerequisite of being a trusted trader, he said. While the subcommittee supports the idea combining trade compliance with security compliance, it's important that they have a chance to see the results of the pilot, he said.
It's important to understand that the pilot is only the first phase of the process, said Dan Baldwin, CBP executive director of Cargo and Conveyance Security. There's some hope the agency can get through some "fairly quick easy wins" in the first phase to get CBP's "house in order," he said. CBP has been involving a number of other agencies to make sure they understand the trusted trader idea for when CBP moves beyond the first phase, he said. The two programs have served their purposes well since they started, but there's a question if they need to be reinvented, said Al Gina, CBP assistant commissioner in the Office of International Trade. Still, there's no "preconceived notion as to what the way forward would be," he said.