Today, that seems a lifetime away.

As a matter of fact, now I can toss around terms like liquidated damages, countervailing duties, and my all time favorite “drawback,” with the best of them. I’m not saying I understand them…just saying I can toss them around.

In those early days of briefings and confirmation hearings, it quickly became apparent that trade was a huge part of CBP’s responsibilities. And, it was up to us to step up our outreach to the trade community. To begin talking to you about your concerns as our worlds continued to evolve, and to get your ideas about how we move forward in ways that were good for the security of our country - and good for our economy.

You were welcoming. You were open. And, there are those in this audience who have become not only necessary business partners, but true - and real - friends to me and CBP. I thank you all for your support and counsel over these past few years. And thank you for taking the time to join us for this year’s Trade Symposium. A special thank you to the COAC companies for working so closely with us. And, we also very much appreciate those serving on our panels, and sharing your expertise and insights with us over the next two days.

I’d like to single out one of our partners who is leaving us - Hal Northcutt - with the American Association of Exporters and Importers - AAEI. My first speech as Commissioner was to the trade - and to AAEI - or as I like to say, E-I-E-I-O.

Hal, I’ll miss your leadership. You’ve been a good friend, but more importantly, a tough critic - something I feel any good agency needs in order to build a strong organization. Good luck to you in your future pursuits.

What I Inherited
When I came to this agency, I found an organization that had already accomplished in three short years more than many agencies accomplish in a decade.

CBP was receiving advance information on cargo and passengers and targeting that information for risk of terrorism.

You had installed the most sophisticated technology at our seaports and land borders.

You were modernizing our commercial operations, and working with our trade partners to secure our nation and to keep commerce flowing.

You were working with other countries to secure the global shipping lanes and with the World Customs Organization to internationalize our strategy.

And you were working with Congress to draft the SAFE Port Act, which codified our strategy into law.

What I Contributed
Now to hear this, it would seem that the work was done.

With you, we had established a comprehensive and effective strategy. We were working well with the trade, with other federal government agencies, and with other countries.

What could I possibly bring to this incredibly effective process - and agency?

Office of Trade
While I wasn’t an expert in trade, what I did know was law enforcement. And, I saw ways I could contribute my experience to the way we structured our agency and conducted our business.

One of the first things I noticed was that several different offices were briefing me on pretty much the same trade issues. Even before it was mandated by the SAFE Port Act, it became clear to me that we needed a consolidated trade office. So one of the first things I did as Commissioner was to establish the Office of International Trade, with Dan Baldwin as the head.

And, I believe we’ve been able to tackle some of the toughest import safety compliance - and security and trade facilitation issues - precisely because we have this office - issues like 10+2, the Lacey and Softwood Acts. Beyond the trade reorganization, I began to focus on the three most important lessons I had learned during my law enforcement career that could perhaps benefit CBP. They were Integrity, Intelligence, and Partnerships.

Integrity
I believe strongly that an organization - particularly a law enforcement organization - lives or dies on its reputation. Perceived or real.

The integrity of its employees - and the integrity of its relationships with its constituents and partners - is critical. So, another of my first acts was to establish an Internal Affairs office within CBP and to appoint Jim Tomcheck to head it up. And since that office was established, Jim, Steve Ianucci, and the many talented individuals in their office, have done an outstanding job.

Among other important programs, they have developed a Comprehensive Integrity Strategy. This plan helps keep our standards high among our workforce and helps guard against misconduct or the seduction of corruption.

Corruption is a debilitating cancer that can cripple a law enforcement agency. It can destroy both the commitment of the workforce and the confidence of the public.

Despite the enormity of the challenge, I was determined to leave CBP with an improved capability to fight against this unfortunate - and unacceptable - type of activity.

Intelligence
The second area I wanted to focus on was intelligence - specifically making CBP a fully integrated, intelligence-driven organization.

One of the fatal flaws identified by the 9/11 Commission was the failure to connect the dots - to link crucial information - because of barriers between agencies.

Law enforcement agencies across the government needed to do a better job of sharing intelligence, and I felt we could begin by doing a better job within our own organization. So, we created the Office of Intelligence and Operational Coordination - OIOC - to break down those barriers and make sure our Agents and Officers in the field have the kinds of operational - and actionable - intelligence they need to do their jobs.

We began by re-defining the term “intelligence” within CBP. Many think intelligence is only top-secret agents using top secret technology to capture enemy secrets. But, I view intelligence as any type of information, from any source, that can be analyzed and interpreted to help our men and women in the field do a better job of protecting this nation.

OIOC is working to improve our processes of getting this information out - not only to our own people, and our law enforcement partners - but also to the broader intelligence community.

We can only truly take advantage of having a unified frontline border agency by better understanding how the components of CBP - and the components of DHS - can work together - and be more effective through our interaction.

Partnerships
And this brings me to my third priority - partnerships. I believe everything we do depends on how effectively we work with other organizations, other agencies, other countries, and all of you.

Everything I have learned in my 38 years of public service proves that to accomplish our goals, we must work together. No matter how large or well funded we are, we cannot get this job done alone. The job is far too complex and the problems facing CBP are far too large to go it alone.

We’re engaged in a very serious business - protecting this country and our economy - against terrorism and all the other things that could harm our nation - drug trafficking, illegal aliens, gangs, unsafe imports, and harmful agricultural pests or products.

We must have your help if we are to succeed in this critical mission.

Ronald Reagan once said, “There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit.”

When we all put aside the notion of claiming credit and work together for the good of the country and all our citizens, then we all win.

And many in this room have proved to be some of our best partners at some of the most critical times in our nation’s history. And, at times, our best partners have also been our toughest critics - but that’s how good partnerships are meant to work. They are built on respect for the other’s views as we both work toward a common goal. It’s listening to new ideas and thoughts on different approaches to solving issues.

On the subject of listening, I received some great advice from my 11th grade teacher, who said, “Ralph, you can learn a lot more in life when you’re not talking.”

We appreciate your willingness to engage with us on a wide range of issues - from the creation of C-TPAT - to the implementation of 10+2 - to the modernization of ACE. This kind of partnering helps ensure that we achieve our security objectives and also provide the facilitation benefits you need to compete internationally.

Your contributions have been invaluable to making us more effective. We simply cannot do this job without you.

Two Announcements
And it’s because of our strong partnership with the trade community that I have the great pleasure of making two important announcements this afternoon.

CBP Trade Strategy
First of all, we know trade has doubled in the last ten years, and experts predict that it will double again in the next ten years. In the face of this explosion in trade, it’s imperative that we have a strategy focused on achieving the balance between trade and security issues.

There is an old saying that if you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there - and hope is simply not a strategy.

And, although you heard some details this morning, I’m happy to announce that CBP is publishing a comprehensive trade strategy for the first time. A strategy that is built on priority trade issues and guides our trade mission in the field.

This document has been in the works for at least a year. Many of you in this room have contributed to it. This strategy is forward looking and brings together all our trade priorities in one document.

So that we - CBP - and you, the trade - know where we are going - and we are not relying on hope to get us there. It’s a strategy that relies on sharing information, sharing resources, and sharing a common commitment to protect this country - and grow our economy.

CPSC Partnership
Last year, several incidents underscored our need to make sure that imported goods are safe - as well as compliant with our laws. We all remember the newspaper headlines about poisoned pet food and lead-painted toys.

Whether food or goods are tainted intentionally or unintentionally, the outcome is the same - sickness or injury or potentially life-threatening situation for our citizens.

In reaction to these incidents, President Bush created the Interagency Working Group on Import Safety to look at every aspect of the way we import products. One of the most important outcomes of this study was the creation of an Import Safety Division within CBP’s Office of Trade - as well as the designation of Import Safety as one of our priority trade issues.

So, my second announcement is that we have new partners in these efforts - the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

This is an historic partnership that will allow us to focus resources on those importers identified as high risk for product safety.

We are committed to working with you - and other government agencies - to ensure that safety is built into our products before they make their way to store shelves - and consumers.

What’s Left Undone
But for all that we have accomplished, we can’t plant a flag in the ground and declare victory. In fact, one thing we should have learned by now is that we probably can never do that. Those who want to harm us have demonstrated their resolve to continually look for new opportunities - and vulnerabilities - to threaten our way of life.

So, we have much more work in front of us.

In addition to continuing to build a fully integrated, intelligence-driven organization that has impeccable integrity, and strong partnerships, we must continue to develop and refine the tools our employees need to ensure that our enemies do not succeed in their mission.

10+2 and 100% Scanning
During this Symposium, you have heard - and will be hearing - a lot about 10 +2 and 100 percent scanning. Quite frankly, we’re at a fork in the road. We can either add more data elements to improve our risk-based, targeted strategy. Or if continued lobbying against further enhancements to 10+2 is successful, the alternative will potentially lead to 100 percent scanning of every container.

That, we believe, takes us in the exact wrong direction.

We are convinced that the additional transparency into the supply chain that 10+2 provides, and the resulting improvement in risk management, is our strongest argument against the much less acceptable - and more draconian measures - of 100% scanning.

One of our biggest concerns is making sure that whatever path we take supports the layered, risk-based strategy that’s now in place.

ACE
We also recognize that in order to manage our performance, analyze data, and communicate within CBP - and with our stakeholders, Automated Commercial Environment - ACE - needs to be further developed.

ACE has been vitally important to all our programs, and is one of the largest information technology projects being undertaken by the U.S. Government.

ACE will help reduce our nation’s vulnerability to threats. Specifically, ACE will provide us with more automated tools and information to decide what cargo should be targeted because it poses a potential risk - and what cargo should be expedited because it complies with our laws.

ACE is being modernized to:

• Improve information sharing and analysis,
• Replace the existing, overburdened system, and
• Comply with legislation requiring us to serve the public more efficiently.

We’ve been working on an ambitious ACE development schedule. Most of our recent efforts have focused on testing ACE rail and sea, which would allow vessel and rail carriers to use ACE for submitting advance information. But, testing of the new programming revealed problems, so as a result the deployment of ACE rail and sea manifest has been delayed for further software testing.

We anticipate a six-to eight-month delay.

We have also postponed the deployment of initial ACE entry summary capabilities, which was originally schedule for this coming January. It will now be deployed about a month after ACE rail and sea manifest.

We are now in the process of evaluating the full impact of these delays on future ACE releases, and will be publishing a new deployment schedule.

Delays aside, ACE remains a top priority. And we will continue to rely on the trade community and participating government agencies to ensure ACE meets the needs of all our stakeholders.

And, because we want to make sure that we’re developing ACE as efficiently as possible, I’ve asked for an independent review of the ACE program.

CBP’s leadership team understands its accountability to you - to the success of ACE - and they understand their responsibilities as stewards of the taxpayers’ money. So, rest assured, we will not deploy tools to the field that are not ready and become part of the problem and not the solution.

We realize, too, that we continue to ask you to do more and give more. And we know that costs more. But I hope you will see, like CBP sees, that the ultimate value in what we are doing is, in fact, worth the cost.

Priorities Unfinished
And, on all the priorities I established for CBP, we still have more work to do.

We are not yet the intelligence-driven organization I envisioned, but we’re getting there.

We have more work to do in Internal Affairs to protect our agency from within - and without - but we’re getting there, too.

Most importantly for this group, we need to continue working toward stronger partnerships. I would like to challenge you to give us your best insights and most thoughtful advice today and tomorrow about how we can improve our engagement with you.

I continually challenge this agency to take advantage of the best ideas that exists.

We understand the vital role we all play in protecting and supporting the economy of the United States.

We want to be sure that every step we take to prevent the catastrophic consequences of even one successful terrorist attack is well balanced with facilitation benefits for the highly compliant trader.

And while a terrorist attack is the worst case, we need your expertise and support on a range of other issues, such as ensuring product safety, stopping IPR violating goods from entering the U.S. commerce, and complying with Congressional mandates on various trade issues.

A New World
As trite as it now is to say that 9/11 launched us into a new world, it’s true.

Every day of the post 9/11 world has challenged us with countering new concerns and new threats. And the economic crisis we are in today adds another dimension to our appreciation of the critical role CBP plays in supporting the competitiveness of U.S. business.

CBP was created in response to the worst crisis our country has faced in our lifetimes - an attack on our homeland.

And, together with you, we have been at the forefront of developing innovative solutions to the challenges of securing our homeland ever since. We have taken bold, revolutionary steps that have changed the way the world of trade does business.

We have proven that close cooperation between government and the trade community is the only approach that works to protect our citizens and the economy.

Some dug their heels in and resisted change.

But of greater concern to me is a kind of complacency. A belief that we have done enough. That the existing strategy seems to be working fine, and that we do not need to continue to press for even more effective security and trade facilitation measures.

That, my friends, is dangerous. This is a high stakes game - and failure has devastating consequences.

I can assure you that the leadership of CBP is keeping its focus. We are stepping up to embrace the kind of changes we need to make. And, we are doing everything in our power to ensure that we do not fail.

So as my time at CBP is coming to an end, our work has not.

But I will tell you from the bottom of my heart that it has been the honor of a lifetime to lead this agency and to work with all of you. Being the Commissioner of CBP has been an exciting and enormously rewarding capstone of my career in public service.

I thank all of you - our partners - in this room.

I thank my colleagues on the leadership team - a team I wouldn’t trade for any I have worked with over my 38 years.

And, I thank the leadership of all our counterpart organizations - both here in the U.S. and overseas.

But most of all I thank the dedicated men and women of this incredible agency, and for the job they do every day to keep this nation safe - and our economy strong.

They truly are America’s frontline.

* 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 from the written text.