I've been looking forward to this event and the opportunity to meet and speak with you, because the Trade Support Network plays a very important role in Customs modernization, and I want to express my appreciation and pledge my support for this partnership as we enter the crucial development phase of the ACE project.

As many of you know, this is not my first tour of duty in Washington. I had the privilege of serving in the former Bush administration, as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Of course, it may be something of a political liability to claim you know too much about how Washington works. But, I think that a certain amount of experience can prove beneficial when you're trying to get things done in this town. And for me, that includes the timely and successful completion of the Automated Commercial Environment.

ACE is an important project for Customs and it's an important project for the business community. It's an important project for our country and for the future of global trade. It should - if done right - reform the way Customs does business with the trade. It should even assist Customs in the advance collection of information for targeting of high-risk cargo to better address the terrorist threat.

The successful and timely design, implementation and funding of ACE is a priority of the U.S. Customs Service. It is one of my priorities. And I have set a goal that it be completed within four years.

Of course, Customs cannot achieve this alone. We need the guidance and input of the business community to meet our goals, and to build the best system of automation possible. We will need the funding to do this. And we need the continuing support of the TSN.

While ACE is and will remain a priority of Customs, our number one priority since September 11 and for the foreseeable future is and must be dealing with the terrorist threat to our nation. Customs is protecting our country on the frontlines - at our borders - from terrorists and terrorist weapons entering the U.S. Using its investigative jurisdiction, Customs is also attacking and disrupting the financing of international terrorists' organizations that threaten our country, and denying them the technology and weapons needed to carry out terrorist acts here and elsewhere in the world.

At the same time we're providing security at the borders, we do not want to choke off the flow of commerce to achieve that security. We must be careful not to sacrifice our openness for our security. We must be careful not to sacrifice the openness of our society, because America's strength as a nation derives from its open society and its open economy. And these should not be allowed to fall victim to terrorism.

And so we will strive to keep America safe and secure without harming the flow of trade. And I believe we can do that with the use of technology for inspections, with more advanced information, with smarter risk targeting and with powerful tools such as ACE, which will promote our nation's security while expediting the flow of commerce across our borders.

Since being confirmed as Customs Commissioner last September, I have been impressed with the level of communication I've seen between Customs and the trade community on this and other major projects. There are very few other federal agencies in which this level of communication exists between government and industry.

I want to promote that communication, especially now during these challenging times. That's one reason I have revamped the Office of the Trade Ombudsman, and renamed it the Office of Trade Relations. Why? Because I wanted there to be a central point through which the trade community can convey issues it has with Customs to me, especially the broad issues of how we do business together, and how we improve the security of our country against the terrorist threat.

So, I'm not just talking about the specific complaints of a particular member of the trade community - complaints that the Office of Trade Relations will continue to address - but also the proposals and solutions to issues impacting our long-term relationship and the challenges we both face. And I also wanted the office to communicate Customs issues and concerns to the trade community. In short, I wanted more dialogue.

And so, speaking of the Office of Trade Relations, at Customs, let me introduce the new Director of the Office of Trade Relations, Andrew Maner. Andy is a key and influential member of my executive staff and he reports directly to me. Andy, if you could stand up for a second...

Before Andy came on board, I told him that I didn't just want him to be an ombudsman, someone to merely take complaints and facilitate resolutions. I wanted him to be much more - to be one of my principal advisors on trade issues. We're very fortunate to have in Andy someone who is extremely well-versed both in the ways of Washington and in the world of business.

I am confident that Mr. Maner will do a great job for Customs and for Customs relationship with the trade. He will see that I understand the concerns of the trade, and that the trade understands my policies and the concerns of Customs.

One of the top priorities that Andy and his staff are working on right now is the new Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. The promotion of trade and the protection of our country should go hand-in-hand. But, I recognize that Customs can't succeed in protecting our country without the help and the participation of the business community - without partnering with the trade.

I proposed the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism at the Customs Trade Symposium last November. Our goal under this Partnership is to work with importers, transporters, brokers and others to protect every aspect of the supply chain from the terrorist threat - from factory floor to loading dock to final port of entry.

As many of you know, Customs has developed successful partnership models in the past to protect commercial trade from exploitation by international drug trafficking organizations. The Business Anti-Smuggling Coalition, or BASC, and the Carrier Initiative have proven that we can team together to prevent the use of legitimate trade by drug trafficking organizations. We are drawing on that experience, and those models, to strengthen our defenses against the use of the legitimate trading system by international terrorist organizations.

Although American companies want to help without any reward - and recognize a strong self-interest in improving security - we are going to reward those companies that adopt new security measures against terrorists. They will be given the fast lane across the border. At the same time, I am aware that some of the delays at the border are not caused by Customs processing, but by infrastructure limitations. That is also one of the areas we will work on together.

The Partnership Against Terrorism is an essential part of our campaign to "expand the border outward" - that is, to do more screening of goods and people away from our ports of entry - at the ports of origin, rather than our ports of arrival. Doing so will allow us to expedite border traffic once it arrives at our land borders and seaports, and to defuse potential threats before they reach our country.

We are also developing this concept with our international partners, Canada and Mexico.

Last December 12 I traveled to Ottawa with Governor Tom Ridge for the signing of the Smart Border Declaration between the U.S. and Canada.

That declaration calls for new initiatives to bolster security across our northern border without impacting the flow of trade. It includes such measures as building new shared border facilities and exchanging an unprecedented amount of advance information. We're looking at ways to prescreen goods and cargo before it reaches our borders.

U.S. Customs, for example, will have advance information on cargo coming into the ports of Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver that is in transit to the U.S. I expect we will be able to prescreen those containers in Canada, at the Canadian ports of entry at Halifax and Vancouver, and then expedite them across to the United States. Canada Customs will be able to do the same in the U.S. for containers that arrive at Newark or Seattle that are in transit to Canada.

Likewise, we are engaged in important bilateral discussions with Mexico to take similar steps to protect our southern border against the terrorist threat. We are working on agreements with Mexico that will allow us unprecedented access to information on trade and people coming into that country.

But that's still not enough. We must go even further in our efforts to protect American lives and American livelihoods.

Last week, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, I discussed a new strategy to secure containerized cargo, which is vital to our global economy.

The vast majority of trade - about 90% - moves in containers, much of it carried on oceangoing container ships. Nearly half of all incoming trade to the United States by value - about 46% -arrives by ship, and most of that is in containers.

As significant as that percentage is, we are still far less dependent on ocean transported containers than many other nations - say, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and the Netherlands.

Unfortunately, oceangoing sea containers are vulnerable to the terrorist threat.

Some of you may have heard about the discovery by Italian authorities last October of a suspected Al Qaeda operative, an Egyptian national, living inside a sea container. He was headed for the Canadian port of Halifax, with airport maps, security badges, and an airport mechanic's credentials. He was ensconced in a container replete with a bed, bathroom facilities, and all the basics he needed for the journey. Fortunately, that journey came to an end before it wound up in disaster.

The consequences would be far worse were terrorists to succeed in concealing a weapon of mass destruction, even a crude nuclear device, among the thousands of containers that enter U.S. ports every day. The physical devastation and mass murders that would be caused by such an attack are horrible to contemplate. You can add to that the effect on the global trading system, which would stop cold. And the impact on our global economy would be severe. Much of world trade would simply grind to a halt as we struggled to develop and implement a security system that would provide assurance against another such attack.

That scenario must be prevented from happening before it happens. For that reason, I have proposed that we work with nations with the world's major seaports to develop a standard for targeting and screening cargo before it is shipped to the U.S. or other countries.

For example, I want U.S. Customs to know everything there is to know about a container headed for this country before it leaves Rotterdam or Singapore, for the Port of Newark or the Port of Los Angeles. I want it prescreened there, not here.

Just ten of the world's largest seaports, the container "mega-ports," account responsible for nearly half of all seagoing containers bound for the United States

These mega-ports include Hong Kong, Singapore, and Rotterdam.

Beginning with the top ten ports that export to the U.S., we should build a new international security standard for containers in order to secure this vital artery of global trade. What are the core elements of a sea container security strategy?

1. Establish security criteria for identifying high-risk containers; those containers that potentially pose a risk.
2. Pre-screen the high-risk containers before they are shipped to the U.S.

   Customs targets and inspects high-risk containers after they arrive. Unfortunately, that may be too late.

3. Use technology to prescreen high-risk containers.

   The good news is that the technology exists and this allows a lot more containers to be inspected for WMDs. Customs uses sophisticated x-ray and gamma ray equipment and radiation detectors now at the arrival ports.

4. Develop and use smart and secure containers - containers with e-seals and light sensors that will indicate to Customs if the container has been tampered with after it has been pre-screened.

Implementing this system will no doubt be difficult, but this task pales in comparison to what is at stake here. That is nothing less than the security of global trading system and ultimately the world economy.

This Container Security Strategy adds another layer to our defenses against the real and continued threat of further terrorist attacks on our country. We have to remember that one of Osama Bin Laden's express goals has been not only to target American lives, but to target the American economy. He said just this in one of his last diatribes from his cave in Afghanistan. We must not allow him or his terrorist associates to succeed.

By working with industry in the Partnership Against Terrorism, with our allies, Canada and Mexico, and with other foreign governments to advance the Container Security Strategy, I believe we can build a strong bulwark against terrorism and expand our mutual perimeter of security outwards.

At the same time, we can build a better system for the movement of global trade.

And wouldn't that be a great thing - if, from the devastation of 9-11, we actually constructed a system that thwarts the terrorists, but at the same time, facilitates and improves the movement of legitimate business and trade - faster and more efficiently than before September 11.

We can make this happen. And you can and you are helping to make this happen.

Thank you.