www.dcvelocity.com JUNE 2016 DC VELOCITY 29
director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy. All relevant for someone who would
head the largest law enforcement agency in the federal
government, with responsibility for border security,
immigration, and the interdiction of smuggled drugs,
merchandise, and people.
That concern was soon laid to rest. Kerlikowske began
meeting with importers and customs brokers within
days of his confirmation hearing. CBP’s top officers
started speaking about the agency’s role in promoting
economic prosperity and of its commitment to making
trade processes more efficient. An increase in outreach
programs, strengthened partnerships with industry
advisory groups, and initiatives like CBP’s industry-specific Centers of Excellence and Expertise are among the
reasons more than one customs broker has said that the
trade community’s relationship with the agency is the
best it has ever been. Granted, disagreements remain
and there is still much work to be done, particularly in
regard to the implementation of new technology, but
Kerlikowske is confident that CBP’s improved relationship with the trade community will help ensure those
and future initiatives succeed.
The commissioner sat down with DC VELOCITY for
a one-on-one interview in mid-April at the Coalition
of New England Companies for Trade’s (CONECT)
Annual Northeast Trade and Transportation Conference
in Newport, R.I. Here’s what he had to say.
QWhat are some of the most important provisions of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act
of 2015, also known as the Customs Authorization Act,
and how will they enhance CBP’s ability to carry out its
mission?
APrior to the Customs Authorization bill, all of the necessary authorities for CBP rested in different
laws. For the first time, all of that has been put together
in one law, which will be very helpful in a number of
respects.
There are quite a few important aspects of the law,
but there are a couple in particular I can mention. One
is that it enshrines the COAC (Advisory Committee
on Commercial Operations) and puts into force of law
the fact that we have a partnership with private sector
stakeholders. A different administration in the future
might say we don’t need that. I don’t think anyone ever
would, but the law ensures that we will always have this
beneficial relationship.
The law also strengthens our enforcement capabilities;
for example, in antidumping cases for steel, and in preventing child and slave labor. NGOs (nongovernmental
organizations) are sharing information with us, and [in
early April] we refused two Chinese shipments of potash
because we had a reasonable suspicion that both had
been loaded by prison labor, a clear violation of U.S.
law.
Another is the change in the de minimis, which
reflects the growth of e-commerce. Also importantly, the law fully funds ACE (Automated Commercial
Environment) for the first time. (Editor’s note: The
de minimis change exempts the first $800 of imported
merchandise from customs fees and duties, as well as from
most compliance requirements; the previous threshold was
$200. ACE is CBP’s comprehensive new information management system now being implemented.)
QEarlier this year, CBP announced a phased implementation of the Automated Commercial
Environment because many companies would not be
ready by the original deadline. Have you seen a measurable increase in readiness since then? If not, what is
holding companies back, and what can CBP do to get
more of them on board?
AOver the last six to eight months, it became apparent hat for various reasons, the developers of the software the industry uses [for filing customs documents]
were unable to deliver changes as rapidly as needed. We
wanted to be attentive to their concerns. I spoke to the
TSN (Trade Support Network, an industry forum that
discusses CBP’s modernization and automation efforts),
and everybody recognized that the end results would all
be for the better, but people needed more time, an extra
30 to 60 days. … Currently, 72 percent of cargo releases
and 92 percent of entry summaries are being submitted
through ACE, so there has been a notable increase.
The changes we made in ACE several months ago
had the greatest impact on the process. There were
some glitches during implementation, and they have
been addressed relatively quickly. We needed to address
problems with air cargo immediately, and we did. I
think the initial implementation problems have been
pretty much resolved. We have a “strategy room” in our
IT organization that will quickly deal with anything else
that arises.
