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 Trade Facilitation, Strategy Discussed in DC
(05/12/2008)The sixth quarterly meeting of the 10th term of The Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) took place on Friday, May 9 in the Ronald Reagan Building. The COAC meeting agenda highlighted a variety of trade facilitation topics. Commissioner Basham reiterated this emphasis on trade issues stating, “We know that we’re going to have to focus more of our energies on trade enforcement and facilitation”. The COAC committee also welcomed the focus on trade topics, as COAC trade co-chair Bruce Leeds said, “We welcome any turn towards trade facilitation”.Executive Director of Trade and Policy Programs Brenda Brockman Smith, gave a synopsis of CBP’s new Trade Strategy, which is a plan to appropriately address the changes in the discourse with the trade community. The plan has four main goals which are to facilitate legitimate trade and ensure compliance, to enforce trade law and collect revenue, to advance economic security, and to intensify trade processes.Smith stressed the significance of partnerships with the trade community as well as other government agencies in order to make the new trade strategy work successfully. Speaking to the committee about the future of the trade strategy Commissioner Basham said “your help in this process is absolutely critical”.To exemplify the necessity of interagency collaboration, Carol Cave from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), spoke to COAC about Import Safety and the cooperation between CBP and CPSC. She explained that CPSC’s upcoming goals are closely aligned to CBP’s which is critical to continued advancement.The group was also briefed on a number of other CBP programs and initiatives such as, IPR enforcement, bond issues, Mutual Recognition status, ACE status, Business Resumption, In-Bond processes, Secure Freight Initiative, Global Trade Exchange, Advance Trade Data (10+2), Conveyance Security Devices, Agriculture programs, and C-TPAT programs.The next COAC meeting will take place on August 7, 2008 in Seattle, Wash. |
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