Bonner: Aid for WCO security program on its way
Several major countries with modern customs administrations will begin providing technical and financial assistance by the end of the year to the first wave of developing countries seeking to implement the World Customs Organization’s new model for securing and fostering trade, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner.
“I believe we will be able to launch very soon capacity building efforts to 30 or 40 developing countries that meet the criteria for assistance,” Bonner told reporters at a symposium on trade issues hosted by the agency last week in Washington.
The framework calls on customs authorities to work together to standardize electronic data collection from shippers and carriers, use risk management principles to determine cargo to be inspected for terrorist or other threats while allowing low-risk cargo to move across the border with few delays, use modern inspection technology to quickly scan containers without unpacking the contents, and establish programs to provide privileges for businesses that meet minimal supply chain security standards.
CBP last month in Miami convened a meeting of customs directors who took the lead in crafting the WCO framework to coordinate assistance programs to developing nations that have indicated the political will to implement the standards and eliminate corruption. During the meeting the United States, along with developed nations such as Canada, Japan, the European Union and many of its member states, New Zealand, and Australia, paired with developing nations to help build their capacities to efficiently process cargo and adopt a new security regime. Bonner, who is galvanizing the effort, declined to list the 10 or 11 countries that CBP may sponsor. But he said Nordic countries, such as Sweden, likely would assist countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The United States is conducting a preliminary assessment of the potential aid recipients’ baseline capabilities using a questionnaire that is linked to each part of the framework. The assessment tool helps CBP determine, for example, whether a customs administration has in place automated reporting systems, detection equipment, risk management practices, and supply chain security incentive programs for industry. Bonner predicted the U.S. questionnaire would become the standard WCO tool for evaluating customs capabilities.
He emphasized during his speech and to the press that capacity building means mentoring and helping nations secure funds from the World Bank and other lending institutions, in addition to traditional customs exchanges of training and technical assistance. The United States and its partners will make sure countries have processes in place to eliminate corruption and improve professionalism before they lobby for a country to receive financial assistance.
“I don’t believe we should throw money down a rat hole,” Bonner said.
Customs officials first described their efforts to match up donor countries with needy countries in early October at the Department of Homeland Security’s advisory committee on commercial operations held in Los Angeles.
Bonner said he was encouraged that more than 115 nations have declared their intent to implement a global framework of WCO standards unanimously approved last summer, including the 25 individual countries within the European Union. About 55 countries have not committed to the WCO principles. In some cases, customs authorities have expressed interest in joining the cargo security movement, but need to get clearance from political leaders, an often time-consuming process, Bonner said.
There is also “a category of country that perhaps doesn’t get it, but will get it, because they will be on the outside looking in” when trading nations refuse to accept their exports because of the potential risk they pose, Bonner said.
Once assistance to build customs infrastructure starts being delivered, most countries will join the WCO cargo security process, he said. The cargo security framework has also served as motivation for non-member countries, such as Honduras, that want to implement the framework to consider joining the WCO.
“We will get the vast majority of trade moving through countries implementing the framework within one to two years if we implement it right,” Bonner said.
A large focus of the WCO framework is to encourage countries to establish trusted shipper programs, modeled on the U.S.’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, under which companies that demonstrate a high level of internal security controls throughout their supply chains enjoy reduced inspections and expedited processing of goods.
Bonner said the European Union is discussing using Sweden’s StarSec program as its model because the EU’s authorized economic operator system focuses on identifying companies that are reliable in terms of paying duties and value-added taxes, and is not a security program.
Multinational companies are pushing for customs authorities to mutually recognize each other's partnership programs so they don’t have to go through the cumbersome process of applying for entry to multiple programs, each with their own enrollment criteria and benefit plans.
Bonner said he could envision a time when customs administrations mutually recognize similar programs so that they don’t have to send inspectors to each foreign country to check if suppliers are meeting security standards, but first customs authorities must build out comparable systems.
“My position is, develop a partnership with the private sector that secures the supply chain, and then we can talk about mutual recognition. But there’s nothing to talk about until you’ve done it,” Bonner said.
Then customs authorities could allow their counterparts to validate companies against a common set of security criteria for securing shipments at the point of origin.
“You have to have essentially a level of trust, because ultimately we are relying on another country with respect to things that have a security impact on the United States,” Bonner said.
“I think that’s the direction we’re headed,” he said of mutual recognition of C-TPAT-type programs.
Bonner said he could also see the prospect for multinational teams to conduct validations of manufacturers and their transportation providers.
“That’s a very difficult issue to work out, but I think that’s one possible approach that would make a lot of sense,” once enough countries have implemented the framework.
As for C-TPAT, Bonner told the audience he is “still hopeful that we can move forward and complete the ‘green lane’ this year, as promised. The “green lane” is the concept of eliminating virtually all cargo inspections for importers that go beyond minimum criteria and implement best practices for security. Those companies must undergo a security audit, ship their goods through a port participating in the Container Security Initiative for selective overseas inspections, and use an electronic tamper-evident container security device (Oman is the next country that plans to sign up for CSI and host CBP inspectors, he said).
“I think you can get to a point with the green lane where you not only trust for security but enforcement and compliance issues, so you substantially shift your compliance exams to essentially a post-entry examination,” he said, referring to a trusted account concept being considered by the department for importers that go the extra mile implementing revenue controls.
Bonner said the green lane hinges on the technology, which he compared to a refrigerator bulb that lights when the door is opened, and that recent tests indicate that a reliable device with a sufficiently low level of nuisance alarms is almost ready for the market. Readers to pick up the short-range radio frequency transmissions from the devices would be installed at CSI ports so CBP officers, as well as shippers, could track the progress and integrity of the shipment. He stressed that because the system would be inexpensive — perhaps $2 per shipment — companies would rush to incorporate the device into their containers.
“Wal-Mart, why wouldn’t it want to do that? It doesn’t have warehouses. It wants its goods to go zippity zip” through ports.
“We are close, on the cusp. We’re not there yet. As soon as it happens, will flip (the green lane) on,” he said.
