CBP Saw 6.6% Increase to Collected Duties in FY 2015, Says Kerlikowske
CBP collected $37 billion in duties during fiscal year 2015, up 6.6 percent from the previous year, said CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske during a Feb. 19 speech at the Tampa Bay Safety and Risk Mitigation Summit (here). The agency also processed 33 million import entries and 26.3 million cargo containers, he said. With NAFTA leading the way, "special programs and Free Trade Agreements represented approximately 27 percent of total U.S. imports, by value," Kerlikowske said.
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Among recent CBP efforts toward security and facilitation improvement is the ongoing Advanced Qualified Unlading Approval pilot programs at four seaports that allows for expedited vessel entrance for sea carriers that are Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism certified (see 1511250011). CBP also expanded its Container Security Initiative, Kerlikowske said. The initiative already prescreens more than 80 percent of all maritime containerized cargo imported in the U.S. using CBP's 60 CSI ports in 35 countries, he said. "With 90 percent of the world’s trade now being transported in cargo containers – and nearly half of the incoming U.S. trade arriving in maritime containers – your business is our business," said Kerlikowske.