Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the agency will continue to lean heavily on the industry for input on how to improve trade facilitation and sharpen its enforcement activities.
Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, speaking Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s fifth annual Global Supply Chain Summit in Washington, said the agency will continue to lean heavily on the industry for its input to improve trade facilitation and sharpen its enforcement activities.
McAleenan, who is awaiting his Senate confirmation hearing to become the country’s next Customs commissioner, credited his predecessors, former Commissioners Alan Bersin and Gil Kerlikowske, for building this mindset within the agency. He stepped up to run the agency in an acting capacity since Kerlikowske left at the end of the Obama administration on Jan. 20, and Trump officially nominated McAleenan as his CBP commissioner in early April.
CBP is responsible for managing the legal entry and export of goods and services, and ensuring cargo is secure from terrorist tampering. The agency is also on the frontlines of processing travelers at ports of entry, and its Border Patrol arm enforces security along land borders between checkpoints.
Overall, CBP is responsible for enforcing nearly 500 U.S. trade laws and regulations on behalf of 47 federal agencies, facilitating trade, collecting revenue, and protecting the U.S. economy and consumers from harmful imports and unfair trade practices. As head of the largest law enforcement agency, the commissioner oversees 60,000 employees and manages a budget of more than $13 billion.
One of the key ways for industry to advise CBP is through the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC). McAleenan spoke at the COAC meeting in March.
He told the Chamber event attendees that the COAC partnership with CBP is “better than it’s ever been… Our trade partners are trusting that process and we’re using those suggestions.”
McAleenan said CBP is continuing to drive the Automated Commercial Environment, the agency’s umbrella computer system, to fruition. “We have to continue pursuing full Automated Commercial Environment as a single window,” he said.
However, ACE has been set back in recent years by delayed modules, frustrating both the agency and the industry which are eager to streamline and improve their digital interactions in processing trade transactions.
The express carriers, such as UPS and FedEx, are looking forward to full implementation of CBP’s Air Cargo Advanced Screening (ACAS) module. A pilot for ACAS was launched in early 2011 after a package bomb originating in Yemen was discovered on a cargo plane. Under the demonstration, transportation providers voluntarily pre-file seven data elements about their consignments as early as possible prior to departure so CBP can run them through threat-assessment software and order any necessary inspections. ACAS is designed to split out the consignment information, which is usually available much sooner than the rest of the post-departure flight manifest filed with authorities at takeoff, so it can undergo risk profiling.
“We’re going to get ACAS over the finish line,” McAleenan said. “I can promise you that.”
Customs will also step up its oversight of the burgeoning cross-border e-commerce trade. In particular, the agency is concerned that mixed in with the numerous legitimate shipments are small but deadly illegal shipments of synthetic narcotics like Fentanyl. The agency seized 2.8 pounds of Fentanyl in shipments in 2013, and that rapidly increased to 440 pounds in 2014, and those seized volumes continue to increase, McAleenan said.
CBP will also continue to step up its enforcement over counterfeit merchandise imports and follow through on Trump’s directives to whittle down the number of regulations on the books, which the president and others have said act as a drag on business growth.
CBP also expects to play a role during the North American Free Trade Agreement renegotiations and negotiations for future bilateral trade agreements. McAleenan said it’s important for Customs to explain how cross-border operations work and the export/import industry’s involvement in those processes.
McAleenan has quickly climbed the ranks at CBP since joining the agency. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the area port director of Los Angeles International Airport, directing CBP’s border security operations at LAX and 17 other airport facilities in one of CBP’s largest field commands. He was promoted to acting assistant commissioner of field operations in December 2011. Prior to government service, he practiced law in California.
McAleenan: Trade industry has CBP’s ear
