US Customs Service Expands Automated Testing

October 19, 1998

19 October 1998

US Customs Service Expands Automated Testing

The following article is excerpted from "The Journal of Commerce" on 19 October 1998.

The U.S. Customs Service is adding five border crossings to the test of its automated expedited
clearance program.

Customs has been working on the National Customs Automation Program since early 1997 and is testing the prototype at three gateways — Detroit and Port Huron on the northern border and Laredo along the Mexican border.

In a notice published last week in the Federal Register, Customs announced that large volume shippers could participate -- as of 1 November — through five additional ports, four on the Mexican border and a fifth in Buffalo, N.Y.... The four Mexican border ports are El Paso , Texas; Nogales, Arizona.; Calexico, Calif.ornai; and Otay Mesa, California.

NCAP is a prototype of an automated processing system for trucks and their cargo. It is geared toward low-risk shipments and could, if proven successful, lead to paperless and nearly delay-free clearance of cargo for major shippers.

Currently the Big Three automakers are participating and two other companies: Robert Bosch and Levi Strauss & Co. are preparing to do so.

"The importers who are involved in the prototype have business at other land border ports so they've
been anxious to move (NCAP) to other ports," said Greg McCann, acting director of the process analysis and requirements team at Customs' Washington headquarters. "We expect that the volumes will increase substantially once we move to places like Buffalo and El Paso."

Under NCAP, the only paper involved in the transaction is a document with a bar code, which is scanned by a customs inspector on an inbound shipment. The bar code provides data about the shipper, shipment and other minimally required information that would let Customs know the participant is a low-risk, high-volume shipper.

Initially, the prototype involves about 1,000 clearances per month.

The NCAP effort is one of two major initiatives under way at Customs to automate clearance of low-risk shipments. A North American Trade Automation Prototype, using transponder technologies, is testing paperless clearance of goods that pass through the United States from Canada to Mexico and the reverse.

The NATAP, a multiagency effort co-ordinated by the Treasury Department and using the International Trade Data System, not only involves paperless customs documentation but also information on truck registration and immigration data on the driver. NATAP is being tested on a parallel basis, meaning shippers who participate must still provide all the documents in paper form. NCAP, however, is operational while being tested.

Although implementation is years away, Customs estimates that as many as 20% of all trade from Mexico could move in an NCAP-type environment since many large U.S. corporations manufacture in Mexico. ventually, most shipper interface with government computers will likely occur with transponder technologies.


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