At the February 21, 2012 COAC meeting, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials discussed ongoing work on the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs). They provided information on the post-entry processing CEEs would do for "trusted partners" and the benefits they would receive. CBP officials also stated that CEEs would be virtual ports and that the agency's regulations may need to be amended to "line up" with what the CEEs will do. COAC's Trade Facilitation Subcommittee also listed certain metrics that could be used to measure the success of the CEEs.
At the February 21, 2012 COAC meeting, CBP and COAC’s Global Supply Chain Security Subcommittee provided an update on various land border security issues. Officials discussed CBP’s development of C-TPAT for exports, possible Tier 3 status for Mexican and Canadian highway carriers, and the C-TPAT Web Portal 2.0, among other topics.
In testimony before Congress, Acting Assistant Commissioner Kevin McAleenan and other CBP officials stated that CBP's primary trade enforcement initiative in FY 2012 will be to enhance its intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement capacity. Another priority trade issue will be enforcing the collection of antidumping and countervailing duties. Officials stated that CBP is also initiating enhanced inspections based on risk, followed by exams, of pharmaceutical, electronic and apparel products. Members of CBP's trusted trade programs (C-TPAT, ISA, National Accounts, and CEEs) will be exempt from this effort.
The Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) will be hosting its 2012 Northeast Trade & Transportation Conference for three days on March 14-16, 2012 in Newport, Rhode Island. Government officials that will make presentations include Cindy Allen, Executive Director of CBP's ACE Business Office; Allen Gina, Acting CBP Assistant Commissioner; and Thomas Falanga, Supervisor, C-TPAT NY Field Office, JFK Airport. The event is approved by NCBFAA for 19 CCS/CES points. Additional details and online registration for this event are available here.
On February 21, 2012, the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) met in Washington D.C. to hear an update from the Broker Workgroup1 on CBP's plans to allow customs brokers to pre-certify Importer Self-Assessment (ISA)2 applicants.
On February 21, 2012, the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) met in Washington D.C. to hear updates on ACE and other projects from government officials as well as reports from its various committees. With respect to ACE, government officials announced that (1) CBP will have six major ACE drops over next 6-8 months, (2) CBP is still looking at how to fix the ACE summary “edits” problem, (3) ACE is critically short on funding for further development, (4) ACE will soon be reviewed by DHS from a financial investment perspective, and (5) the main software developer’s contract has run its term. Attendees also gave an update on ACE Simplified Entry and Summary, and ACE for exports.
The Department of Homeland Security has released a report on its accomplishments in 2011, in connection with a speech by Secretary Janet Napolitano on the progress DHS has made that year. Among other accomplishments, the report notes that (1) the Container Security Initiative is now active at more than 50 overseas ports, and (2) the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) has grown to more than 10,200 Certified Partners worldwide.
Broker Power is providing readers with some of the top stories for February 13 - February 17, 2012 in case they were missed last week.
On February 7, 2012, a House subcommittee1 held a hearing on “Balancing Maritime Security and Trade Facilitation: Protecting our Ports, Increasing Commerce and Securing the Supply Chain” at which testimony was given by witnesses from CBP, GAO, etc. on issues such as 100% scanning, C-TPAT, CSI, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's C-TPAT administrators have issued a message to all C-TPAT partners to clarify a February 2012 notice that announced that a new ISO mechanical seal standard would apply on March 1, 2012. CBP explains that as no accredited independent laboratories have been willing to test a certain element of the ISO seal standard requirements, the new standard cannot be met. CBP is therefore delaying implementation of the new standard until this issue is resolved. However, C-TPAT partners are encouraged to buy seals that comply with another part of the standard that is attainable.