It's nice to be here in New York, although they say that if you miss a day in Washington, D.C., you miss a lot. When I left D.C. yesterday, Customs was part of the Treasury Department. Today, it looks like we're in the Department of Homeland Security. I think I'd better hurry up and get back to D.C. before anything else happens!

I'd like to mention that Peter's company, JC Penney, has been one of the stellar participants in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. We are very glad to have them, and many others of you in the room today, as our partners in C-TPAT.

I am delighted to have this opportunity to speak to members of the USA ITA today. Customs has developed a good working relationship with USA ITA over the years - and I think that's great! Nothing pleases me more than to see that Customs listens to the trade and works with the trade.

I know that yours is an industry that works very closely with the government - with the United States Trade Representative, with Customs, and with other government entities. And your industry matters a great deal to us at Customs - textiles and apparel represent about 45% of all the duties we collect annually. The roughly 55,000 textiles and apparel importers bringing goods to the U.S. account for about $80 billion worth of U.S. imports each year. Those are some very significant numbers.

I'm glad that during this conference you're having the chance to talk to and hear from two people from U.S. Customs who are instrumental in maintaining and improving Customs' partnership with the trade - Janet Labuda, the Director of our Textile Enforcement Division, who will be on the Current Textile Issues panel this afternoon, and Richard Di Nucci, the Program Manager for C-TPAT, who you heard from during the Supply Chain Security panel this morning.

I think all of you know that the U.S. Customs Service has been working very hard over the past year to increase the security of our country and our people, to increase what is being called "homeland" security these days. And very simply put, that means we've been working hard to address the terrorist threat our nation faces.

The increase in Al Qaeda activity over the past month or so - including

• the recent audio recordings of Osama Bin Laden threatening further attacks, especially on Western economic targets;
• the terrorist murders of our marines in Kuwait and in the Philippines;
• the murder of an American diplomat in Amman, Jordan;
• the terrorist attack in Bali, Indonesia; and
• the terrorist attack on the French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen,

- all of these serve as poignant reminders that we still face a very real threat from Al Qaeda and its comrades in arms around the world. I'm referring particularly to the 10,000 trained in the camps in Afghanistan from 1996 until October 2001.

The U.S. Customs Service has an important role to play and, indeed, has a responsibility for keeping our borders and our nation safe from international terrorism. And let me tell you, we are doing and will continue to do everything we can to protect our nation and our people from further terrorist attacks - to keep terrorists and terrorist weapons from getting into our country.

But at U.S. Customs, we also know that, besides our security mission, we have an important role to play in making sure that legitimate trade and people move through our borders as efficiently as possible. In fact this is part of our charge: to protect our nation and to protect our nation's economy.

You see, the U.S. Customs Service has twin goals: (1) increasing security and (2) facilitating trade. We know that we must protect American livelihoods as well as American lives. And I reject the notion that these goals are mutually exclusive. They aren't! They don't have to be if we develop and implement smart initiatives.

Because of our responsibility for both trade and security-related matters, Customs is in a unique position to promote both border security and trade facilitation - to develop and implement smart initiatives that do both. Initiatives like the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, ("C-TPAT") and the Container Security Initiative, ("CSI").

Department of Homeland Security
Yesterday, as I noted, the Senate did pass the bill to create a new department of government, the Department of Homeland Security. Some of you may be wondering what will happen to those twin goals of trade security and facilitation when Customs moves to the new Department. Now that both the Senate and the House have passed legislation for the new Department, and the President will be signing the bill into law early next week, a new Department of Homeland Security will become a reality. And, under the legislation, HR 5710, the entire U.S. Customs Service will be moving from the Department of the Treasury to the new Department of Homeland Security.

The move of all of Customs - trade, revenue, enforcement, security - to the new Department is a good thing - it is better for our country, it is better for the security of America, and, I would submit, it is and will be better for the trade community. It will make us more effective and more efficient, and it will establish clear responsibility and accountability over what is now a fragmented effort, especially at our borders, to protect our homeland and the American people. And let me tell you right now that, in the new Department, Customs will continue to pursue those twin goals.

Because all of Customs is moving to the new Department, we will be able to continue our efforts to increase security while simultaneously facilitating trade. And we will continue fostering our partnership with the trade that has enabled and is enabling us to develop and implement smart initiatives. We will also continue to work with you on the important transshipment and other trade issues that exist within your industry. Trade compliance will remain as important as it is now. And, just so I'm clear on this, as I've said many times before, I want the trade community to rest assured that its voice will continue to be heard in the new Department.

It is more important than ever that the relationship between U.S. Customs and the trade community be a true partnership. We must work together to address the enormous issues we face in the post 9/11 world.

C-TPAT
By working together, we can and will find the most effective solutions to the issues and challenges we face. Consider the example of C-TPAT, which I know you discussed during the panel on Supply Chain Security.

One of the C-TPAT participants sent me a letter recently, commending the efforts of U.S. Customs personnel in working with his company on C-TPAT, and in that letter, he stated, and I quote, "when we all want to, government and private business can work together to achieve great things." I couldn't agree more. With C-TPAT, we are achieving great and important things for our country - together!

At a time when increased security measures could have hindered expedited Customs processing at and through the border, Customs and the trade are working together through C-TPAT to take steps to expedite that processing. And we are doing this by identifying a large network of companies with whom we can work as partners to meaningfully and quickly increase supply chain security - for goods moving from abroad to the U.S.

We've had an extraordinary response to C-TPAT so far - over 1,000 companies have signed up to be C-TPAT members - and that includes a large number of importers, as well as carriers and customs brokers.

The response to C-TPAT tells me that many businesses recognize their role in - in fact, their responsibility to take part in - security efforts. This is a responsibility because, in my view, it is simply not possible to have an effective security regime for our nation and for global trade if the private sector does not get involved.

As our partners, naturally we expect C-TPAT participants to make the investments necessary to deliver meaningful improvements in security. And, as with any true partnership, we will both benefit from C-TPAT. The vetted members of C-TPAT are already receiving benefits from the program, including reduced inspections.

That's important to me - I want to make sure that companies who partner with us, and improve security in their supply chains, see and receive tangible benefits.

In the new Department of Homeland Security, we will continue to move forward with C-TPAT and our other smart border initiatives that fulfill the twin goals of increasing security and facilitating trade. And, with your help, with the trade's help, we will make sure these initiatives are implemented in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

Trade Symposium
You know, C-TPAT is an initiative that was born out of ideas raised at last year's Customs Trade Symposium. I think it's worth mentioning that tomorrow, we will kick off the third annual U.S. Customs-Trade Symposium in Washington. I hope to see some of you there.

The Symposium has traditionally been a place where Customs and the trade work together to come up with ways to improve our programs, like C-TPAT. And that is what I fully expect from this year's symposium as well - new ideas and concrete plans for meeting the challenges we both face in the post 9/11 world. The agenda for this year's Symposium is more urgent and important than ever.

As some of you may know, we have added an extra ½ day to this year's symposium, so that we can discuss with the trade community issues concerning implementation of the new Advance Manifest or 24-hour rule, which goes into effect on December 2, as well as issues pertaining to the Trade Act of 2002.

As an industry that already provides a lot of timely information to U.S. Customs, yours can and should be an example to other industries that doing that - providing information to us in a timely manner - can be a routine part of importing into the U.S.

It is important that we keep an ongoing dialogue with the trade on both the Trade Act issues and the issues arising from implementation of the 24-hour rule.

At this year's Symposium, we will also be discussing how Customs and the trade will work together to ensure effective cooperation in the new Department of Homeland Security.

Conclusion
As the partnership between U.S. Customs and the trade moves forward - and as Customs moves into the new Department of Homeland Security - I want all of you to remember this: both the protection and the facilitation of trade remain and will remain our twin goals.

It is true that combating terrorism is the number one priority of the U.S. Customs Service - and it will continue to be our number one priority for the foreseeable future. It has to be. The threat of international terrorism is real and ongoing. That means that like it or not, all of us must do what we can to adapt our systems to address the new threat we face.

But as we do this - as we adapt our systems - we will continue to work with the trade to make sure that we preserve, and whenever possible, even improve the efficient movement of legitimate trade.

Thank you.

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