Close cooperation between U.S. Customs and Canada Customs is generating new strategies, ideas, and plans officials on both sides of the border believe will allow them to control containers before they enter Canada and the USA, and ultimately, to ensure the security of containers moving between the trading nations of the world.

Photo Credit: James Tourtellotte

An inspector checks the seal on a container as part of heightened security program on the Northern Border.

In June 2002, U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner and Commissioner Robert Wright of Canada Customs and Revenue (CCRA) will address the World Customs Organization (WCO) in Brussels, showcasing the results of heightened cooperation between the USA and Canada and a new commitment on the part of both nations to preempt terrorist attacks.

Bonner and Wright intend to outline a number of joint cargo security improvements for the 159 WCO members assembled for the event, and to emphasize that the key to making each of these improvements work is the efficient implementation of two critical, "foundation" strategies.

Two core strategies - the foundation of joint security improvements
The first of two prerequisite strategies is a plan to position specially trained "targeters" in source countries to identify and examine in-transit containers. Right now, U.S. targeters are in Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax. By the time the WCO meeting kicks off in Brussels, Canadian targeters will be in Seattle, JFK, and Newark. Plans call for the positioning of inspectors in Europe and Asia.

The second core strategy - ensuring "supply chain" security - derives from the initiative U.S. Customs has dubbed the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or C-TPAT. Agreements between the USCS, the CCRA, and the trade have been designed to guarantee that every container will be secured, monitored, tracked, and controlled from the moment it leaves an exporter's premise until the time it arrives at its ultimate destination.

Heading off terrorism
In-transit targeting and controlling the supply chain are preemptive initiatives, designed to head off containers that may conceal instruments of mass destruction, explosives, arms, and other terrorist weapons and prevent them from even arriving at USA/Canada ports of entry.

During their presentation to the WCO, Bonner and Wright intend to make it clear that countries interested in exporting to Canada and the U.S. are going to be playing by new, post-September 11 rules - and that in-transit targeting and ensuring supply chain security are the name of the game. The goal is a simple one: to guarantee the security of the United States and Canada long before foreign exports arrive at our borders.

Both Bonner and Wright are convinced that approaches like these, based on strong, effective partnerships, will eventually change the way containers are allowed to move across the world's trade routes - opening them wider for legitimate trade and closing them forever to terrorism.