We gather here in New York City, not far from Ground Zero, and only days removed from the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11.

I marked that anniversary here in New York with the employees of Customs and Border Protection, many of whom were on duty that fateful day.

Even though all 800 employees physically escaped the 6 World Trade Center before the building was destroyed by the fall of the Twin Towers, many still bear the psychological scars of that day. Some employees were in the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993.

It was an emotional day, but a day of great resolve and commitment on the part of CBP employees. I don’t have to remind them what we are fighting against—or why. They know. They experienced it firsthand. They witnessed the death and destruction wrought by the terrorists.

And, that knowledge of just how awful and how terrifying another attack could be is what keeps all of us at CBP going.

That knowledge is what gives us the energy and drive to be more vigilant, to work longer hours, and to do everything we can possibly do to prevent another attack. I also remind them that just because there hasn’t been another attack on U.S. soil, doesn’t mean that they aren’t still trying.

We saw the London train bombing last July. And, this summer, in Canada, we saw the arrest of a terrorist cell that planned to attack government buildings, including the Parliament. There was also the disrupted airlines plot in London, where terrorists planned to detonate explosive devices on as many as 10 aircraft. And, just last weekend, Yemen foiled two suicide attacks on its oil and gas facilities.

America remains a target. New York remains a target. In fact, the entire civilized world and the global economy remain targets for terror.

We know our enemy is patience and calculating. It was eight years between the bombings of the World Trade Center, so here at the 5 year mark, we cannot rest.

Instead, this five-year anniversary invites us to assess how far we’ve come, and to rededicate ourselves and redouble our efforts to make our maritime supply chain more secure from the terrorist threat, yet more efficient for the global economy and the businesses of our countries.

Five years after the worst terrorist attack in history also drives us to take our efforts to the next level.

Taking Our Efforts to the Next Level
I am fortunate to follow in the footsteps of former Commissioner Rob Bonner, a visionary leader who, along with the men and women of CBP, laid a solid foundation for Customs and Border Protection.

This Conference recognized his contributions to supply chain security in 2004 with the Maritime Security Lifetime Achievement Award—and in my opinion, no one is more deserving.

I respect what he was able to accomplish—the unprecedented programs he set in place after 9/11—and the partnerships he forged with the private sector and the international trade community.

I intend to build on those programs—and those partnerships—and raise them to the next level.

During my tenure, I intend to continue working with the private sector, with other government agencies, and with our partners abroad to expand and refine those programs that have quite literally revolutionized global trade.

Twin Goals: Security and Facilitation
You are familiar with the Strategy to Secure and Facilitate Trade.

It consists of five interlocking layers of defense, each one building on the other to increase both security and facilitation—advance information, risk targeting, working with our private sector partners through C-TPAT, working with our international partners through CSI, and deploying sophisticated radiation detection technology.

Let me offer some observations about where we were before 9/11, where we are now, and where we need to go.

Advance Information
First, with advance information. Before 9/11, there was no mandatory requirement that Customs administrations receive data in advance. Actually, we were trying to reduce the amount of information we received on commercial shipments.

But with the threat of nuclear weapons, or even terrorists themselves in containers, we knew we needed more information. And out of that realization, grew the 24-Hour and Trade Act rules that require detailed manifest data 24 hours before lading at foreign ports.

This was revolutionary at the time. And we continue to work with the trade community to determine what additional data elements we may need for greater transparency—and to determine the most efficient way of collecting it.

National Targeting Center
The second layer of our strategy involves assessing the advance information for the risk of terrorism. We do that for both cargo and passengers at the National Targeting Center.

Before 9/11, no national level targeting existed for risk of terrorism in commerce. Then, the risks were commercial fraud and contraband.

Today, all cargo shipments are evaluated for terrorist risk through our Automated Targeting System at the National Targeting Center. And all that reach the high-risk threshold are targeted for inspection.

In fact, the National Targeting Center has been so successful—and such an important tool in our risk-targeting efforts—that we will open a second Center by the end of the year.

The original NTC will continue to target passengers, while the second Center will target cargo containers, and provide service to our labs, as well as teleforensics.

We are also continually refining our targeting rules and improving our process for separating low from high risk. The new information we are considering will be important to these efforts.

CSI
Third, is the Container Security Initiative (CSI)—our partnership with other countries that puts CBP personnel in foreign seaports to work with our counterparts to inspect all high-risk containers overseas before they set sail for U.S. ports.

Certainly, before 9/11, no program like CSI existed that required inspection of high-risk containers—at the foreign seaport—before they set sail for the U.S.

Five years ago, it would have been hard to envision the partnerships we have forged with 30 countries to place CSI at 44 foreign ports.

We are expanding our CSI program. Within the next several weeks, CSI will be in 50 ports. Currently, 80 percent of the maritime containerized cargo bound for the U.S. is screened overseas before it reaches our shores. By next year, our goal is to have CSI in 58 overseas ports.

C-TPAT
The fourth program of our strategy is the hugely successful C-TPAT—the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism—our partnership with the private sector, the owners and operators of the supply chain.

C-TPAT now has more than 6,000 certified partners who span the gamut of the trade community importers, carriers, brokers and forwarders, terminal operators, and manufacturers.

We have validated over half of those certified partners and expect to reach 65 percent by the end of this year. By the end of next year, we will have validated 100 percent.

Also next year, to help keep the program robust, we will begin to re-validate companies on a recurring basis. This will ensure that our partners have adopted stronger supply chain security measures across their international supply chains.

The genius of this program is that all who have joined C-TPAT are working with CBP to better secure the global shipping lanes and to make the supply chain more efficient and even faster in the process.

C-TPAT is a program that makes good business sense. It makes good security sense. And it serves the needs of both government and business.

C-TPAT is—and always was intended to be—a voluntary program, and we intend to keep it that way. Companies work best—and are more profitable—when they are not overburdened with unnecessary government regulations.

Many feared that the tighter security after 9/11 would “throw sand in the machinery of global trade,” but in fact, according to a recent World Bank survey, the opposite has happened. It’s actually greased the wheels of commerce, making it faster and more efficient. [Doing Business in 2007]

WCO Framework
Of course, one of the biggest steps forward for the security and facilitation of international trade was the adoption last June of the WCO Framework by the World Customs Organization.

Yesterday afternoon Michel Danet, the Secretary General of the WCO, spoke to you about progress on the WCO Framework.

The Framework is nothing short of a global strategy that all nations can join to combat global terrorism, to protect trade, and to secure the global economy.

Out of the 169-country membership of the WCO, the vast majority—138 countries—have signed onto the Framework. The potential of so many customs administrations and countries working together through this Framework to both secure and facilitate global trade is surely an effort unprecedented in our time!

Technology
The fifth part of our strategy is detection technology, which underpins everything we do—our ability to receive advance information, our ability to assess that information, our ability to inspect containers at foreign seaports, and our ability to work closely with our private sector partners to improve security of the supply chain.

Before 9/11, we had a limited capability to screen for radiation. Today, all CSI ports use Non-Intrusive Inspection imaging equipment to inspect high-risk containers.

And, we continue to increase the number of NII equipment at our domestic ports. RPMs currently scan over 90 percent of our land border cargo and 70 percent of sea containers. And, by the end of next year, we will scan for radiation 98 percent of all sea containers.

Just last week, I was in Baltimore to unveil CBP’s latest weapon in our arsenal against the terrorist threat—a mobile Radiation Portal Monitor. Baltimore is currently one of seven U.S. ports to have this new mobile RPM. And we will be deploying more mobile Radiation Portal Monitors around the country by the end of the year.

These mobile RPMs offer us new flexibility and a greater ability to detect dangerous radiological devices or materials that might be smuggled into the country.

These tools are great—and useful—but we should be looking to the next generation radiography. Machines that have higher penetrating power and software with more accurate patterns of recognition. Machines that recognize and can identify specific isotopes so that we aren’t responding to false alarms. Machines that save time and make us more effective at our job.

ACE
One of the major programs the trade community has helped CBP develop is the Automated Commercial Environment—ACE—the technology foundation we are modernizing to support our national security and business management efforts.

ACE is another outstanding example of business and government working together to build a system that supports our common requirements to manage information securely and efficiently.

The ACE portal allows importers to review information related to their business dealings with CBP. And many are finding that this ability to review their information—and run reports tailored to their business—is making their operations more efficient and more compliant.

PMS
And through ACE, we’ve been able to streamline the payment process for the trade community—and CBP—with the Periodic Monthly Statement.

Companies can now pay duties and fees through this monthly payment system, and more and more companies are taking advantage of its convenience.

Since it was launched in July 2004, our monthly collections through ACE have grown to over $700 million. That’s 28 percent of all the duties and fees CBP collects.

Port Security Bill
Now, let me touch briefly on the new cargo security legislation that passed the House and Senate last week.

This legislation is likely to emerge from conference by the end of the month and be passed into law.

First, let me note that the Administration, DHS and CBP worked closely with the House and Senate. And, we applaud the high level of Congressional interest in securing our ports and the global supply chain.

I would also note that much of what is in both versions of the legislation simply puts into law what U.S. Customs, the trade industry, and our international partners began right after 9/11.

The legislation is an overwhelming endorsement of CBP’s approach to cargo security.

So, our fundamental strategy will remain the same—now with congressional endorsement.

Office of Trade
The Senate version of the legislation also contains a restructuring of trade entities within CBP into a single Office of Trade.

Last week, I announced the creation of a new Office of Trade within Customs and Border Protection, effective October 15th.

This new Office of Trade brings together the functions of trade policy and program development that have been split among three offices—the Office of Strategic Trade, the Office of Field Operations, and the Office of Regulations and Rulings.

The Office of Trade will improve our ability to better fulfill our missions of facilitation, enforcement, revenue collection and protection of U.S. industry from unfair trade practices.

It will also improve our interface with the trade community.

U.S. Coast Guard
I also want to recognize the close working relationship we have with our U.S. government partners. Our most important partner in maritime security is, of course, the United States Coast Guard.

In fact, last week I had the opportunity to co-host, along with the Commandant, the first meeting of the Senior Guidance Team, which brings together the senior leadership of CBP and the Coast Guard to improve upon the cooperation, coordination, and communications between our two agencies. We believe our relationship is strong, but we feel it can be even stronger. I know the Commandant and I are looking forward to the results of that meeting.

And, I want to congratulate my colleague and friend Admiral Thad Allen and a partner from the trade industry, Gary Veurink, who both received the Distinguished Leadership Awards at this conference yesterday.

Conclusion
I saw on your schedule that members of this conference participated in a simulated assault on a training vessel at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and that you participated in a U.S. Army “war games” presentation—simulating an attack at a seaport by a suicide bomber.

Sadly, those scenarios are all too real in today’s post-9/11 world. Therefore, it is extremely important that we think about—and plan for the unthinkable.

And, because we understand the nature of the threat against us, it is incumbent on everyone in this room to redouble our efforts in every aspect of our strategy that protects our seaports—our countries—and the global economy.

Our global supply chains are the lifeblood of the global economy—and that makes them a target for terrorists. The terrorists would like nothing more than to destroy the global economy—and kill as many as possible in the process.

Since 9/11, you’ve built extraordinary safeguards into our trade system that both protect business and help us secure our nation. And, we must continue to raise our efforts to the next level.

CBP is committed to doing everything possible to prevent another terrorist attack. Anything less is unacceptable. And, I know you share that commitment.

Commissioner Basham reserves the right to edit his written remarks during his oral presentation and to speak extemporaneously. His actual remarks, as given, therefore, may vary slightly from the written text.