CBP Working Toward MRAs With China and India, Owen Tells Lawmakers
CBP "is continuing to work towards" Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs) or "similar recognition" with several countries, including China and India, CBP Office of Field Operations Executive Assistant Commissioner Todd Owen said in written testimony for the House Homeland Security Transportation and Protective Security Subcommittee. The subcommittee held a Sept. 26 hearing on aviation security. Other countries mentioned were Brazil, Peru, Uruguay. MRAs allow for consideration of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and Authorized Economic Partnership programs at the borders.
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Air import value accounted for about a quarter of the $2.28 trillion worth of imported cargo containers at ports of entry during fiscal year 2016, said Owen. CBP is waiting on airports in Stockholm and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to address infrastructural and legal matters before starting planned traveler preclearance operations there, and the agency is in talks to expand preclearance programs to about 10 other locations as well. Former CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske in October 2016 said negotiations to expand preclearance to other countries bodes well for the air cargo industry (see 1610170017).
As CBP plans to expand traveler preclearance operations to about 12 more foreign locations, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) has "serious concerns" about such an action amid an existing CBP officer shortage of 3,500, and an agriculture specialist shortage of 631, the NTEU said in a written statement. The U.S. pays “significant” portions of construction and maintenance costs for preclearance facilities inside airports, and of CBP officers’ and agriculture specialists’ salaries and benefits at those locations, NTEU National President Anthony Reardon said.
The House-passed fiscal year 2018 spending bill includes funding to fill the current vacancy of 1,400 CBP officers, but no new funding to address the ongoing shortage of another 2,100 CBP officers and the 631 agriculture specialists, as called for in CBP's FY17 Workload Staffing Model, Reardon said. He urged Congress to increase funding for CBP officers in final FY18 appropriations legislation. "Even though the salaries of CBP personnel at the new preclearance ports will be primarily funded by the foreign countries hosting the new preclearance facilities, there are no excess CBP employees today that can be reassigned to preclearance ports without exacerbating the staffing shortages at domestic ports of entry," Reardon said.