Those involved in international trade were reporting relatively few impacts of the government shutdown, in its second day, but expressing concerns about the longer term. Most industry officials told us traffic continues moving through ports and airports.
CBP made available a full report on the Aug. 7 meeting of the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC). Among the subcommittee recommendations at the meeting were:
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 16-20 in case they were missed.
CBP is actively considering a recent proposal from the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association (NCBFAA) that would allow brokers to differentiate importers that a broker has gathered some basic information on, said CBP Acting Commissioner Tom Winkowski on Sept. 23. Winkowski, who spoke at the NCBFAA Government Affairs Conference, said "details of this proposal are being discussed," but "we believe the brokerage community is in a unique position to understand their clients' needs and business process and we want to leverage that expertise to enhance compliance." The NCBFAA submitted information on the proposal, called the "Broker Known Importer" program, earlier this year (see 13041124).
A planned pilot combining CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and the Importer Self Assessment (ISA) programs will allow the agency to gain a more flexible and company-specific understanding of individual trade compliance and supply chain security, said Valarie Neuhart, Director of Industry and Account Management at CBP. Neuhart and others spoke about the new program during a Webinar hosted by Integration Point Sept. 17.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 9-13 in case they were missed.
CBP is up to 1,284 total Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) validations, including 339 initial validations and 945 revalidations, the agency said in an update on C-TPAT achievements. CBP has said it plans to get through 2,200 validations this year (see 13060627). There has also been a total of 1,690 suspensions and 1,242 C-TPAT removals.
Representatives from the World Customs Organization (WCO) conducted a workshop on their instruments such as the Economic Competitiveness Package and the Revised Kyoto Convention, during a workshop at CBP headquarters, WCO said. Other topics included the WCO’s SAFE Framework of Standards to Secure and Facilitate Global Trade, “a unique international instrument which has ushered in a safer world trade regime and heralded a new approach to the end-to-end management of goods moving across borders while recognizing the significance of a closer partnership between Customs and business.” WCO said participants also discussed efforts to promote establishing the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programs, businesses validated by customs authorities to “engage in a self-assessment process measured against predetermined security standards and best practices to ensure that their internal policies and procedures provide adequate safeguards against compromise of their supply chains until cargo is released” from customs at the destination.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 3 - Sept. 6 in case they were missed.
Shippers will see a clear need to integrate their import compliance and operations functions and processes in order to better leverage resources and investment in technology, leading to more efficiencies, said a report released by Livingston International. But it said "there's little to suggest that this shift has yet taken place." The survey also found Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and Importer Self-Assessment (ISA) "aren't as beneficial as the majority of importers would like them to be" and that 60 percent of shippers said they're uncertain of the benefits of C-TPAT participation, see less benefit than anticipated, or no benefit at all. Just 11 percent said the program has delivered all that it promised, Livingston said. The picture is even worse for ISA, the report said: "A third of respondents say they derive no benefit from the program, and nearly one half say they are uncertain of its benefits."