US CBP may consider adding Canada, Mexico, to trade symposium conference

Mexican, US and Canadian authorities are making progress integrating border management policies and procedures, and this has led US Customs and Border Protection to consider proposing a tripartite conference, modeled on CBP's popular Trade Symposium, to update industry about their joint efforts, Deputy Commissioner Thomas Winkowski said Friday.

Last week some 800 trade professionals attended the Trade Symposium Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C., to hear officials outline their vision for customs reforms and trade simplification, as well as industry representatives that are advising the agency or participating in pilot programs to help shape programs and rules, reported American Shipper.

At the conference, Winkowski laid out the possibility of expanding the forum to Mexico and Canada to help get the cooperation of businesses there and exchange ideas for minimizing the regulatory burden on cross-border trade.

CBP is working closely with the Canada Border Services Agency to implement many aspects of the U.S.-Canada Beyond the Border initiative and with Mexican Customs on a joint 21st Century Border Management initiative, both of which are designed to make the border more efficient for commerce while strengthening security cooperation to thwart criminals and terrorists from exploiting the trade and transportation system...

The United States, Canada and Mexico have each developed information technology systems enabling traders to file customs data once for dispersal throughout the government instead of filing separate, and often duplicate, documentation with multiple agencies that need to review entries for clearance purposes. The United States has set a December 2016 deadline to launch its International Trade Data System. Mexico's version of the "single window" system is already in operation, and Canada plans to go live with its system at the end of the year...

CBP's mission of securing and expediting trade can best be accomplished through cooperation with international partners, and the working relationship with Canadian and Mexican customs authorities has become especially tight in the past few years, Winkowski said...

Although the NAFTA partners have made good progress on thinning red tape at the border for legitimate traders, "I think there's a lot more opportunity out there for us to really make the globe even smaller than it is today," he continued...

The deputy commissioner suggested the event could be sponsored by all three customs administrations, with the location rotating among the nations...

This has been excerpted from the 10 March 2014 article by the Canadian Shipper, and is available in its entirety at http://www.canadianshipper.com/news/us-customs-and-border-protection-may-consider-adding-canada-mexico-to-trade-symposium-conference/1002953968/.