22 April 2005

Customs to offer inspection-free box clearance

The following article is excerpted from the 21 April 2005 edition of “The Journal of Commerce”.

Ocean containers moving through a validated secure supply chain from a secure loading dock through a port that is part of the Container Security Initiative to a validated Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism shipper will use a "green lane" to clear U.S. Customs without inspection in the near future, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commission Robert Bonner said….

Bonner said that shippers, carriers …, forwarders and warehouses that implement strict "best practices" and undergo Customs verification of their supply chain security "will be part of a 'third tier'...whose benefits will be, in my mind, the green lane,"….

Shippers will earn the green lane, Bonner said, "because the best practices will include employing a smart box container. Best practices will mean owning the secure supply chain and selecting C-TPAT-verified carriers and may well include as a best practice routing shipments through a CSI port."

Bonner said the last requirement is not a certainty, but added, "[i]n all probability a best practice will include routing shipment through CSI ports. Since we are in 36 foreign ports, the largest ports in the world, this can now be done. This could not have been done two years ago. …”.

Bonner said the three-tier system begins with an application for participation in C-TPAT that includes a written supply chain security plan. If the plan is approved by Customs, the business becomes certified.

Following certification, a company can expect Customs agents to validate the security plan including a check of compliance of the foreign components in the supply chain. Foreign suppliers must have limited access, on-duty security personnel, employment screening and proper paperwork. This second tier of validation will assure speedy passage through Customs, Bonner said, but will not earn inspection-free clearance.

Third-tier, green-lane shippers must also use smart containers equipped with anti-tamper technology when they become available. They must use carriers that are also Customs-validated and they must export from CSI ports.

Asked if there are any plans to help shippers offset the cost of increased security, travel and paper work, Bonner said, "No. The programs have their benefits that are translatable to dollars and cents. And if they can't see that, it is their problem not mine."

However, Bonner did say that in addition to green-lane clearance for the most secure shippers, all validated C-TPAT partners can expect uninterrupted commerce even if there is a terrorist attack on ports or other parts of the trade infrastructure.

"If you are not a member of C-TPAT, in times of crisis: good luck,"….

Bonner said that non-C-TPAT shippers are six times more likely to undergo a Customs security inspection at a U.S. port than members. And he added that because of advance notice rules and complex computer programs used for screening shippers, "I am certain that we examine 100 percent of the suspect containers entering the United States."

He said that of the 90,083 C-TPAT applicants, 5,020 are importers, 2,208 are carriers, 1412 are brokers and about 440 are foreign manufacturers. Of that number, 10 percent have been validated with another 20 percent in the validation process; more than 100 companies have been rejected after failing their validation inspection, he said.

Bonner said that within two months Customs will post validated and certified C-TPAT partners on a secure, members-only Web site for those companies aiming for third-tier clearance or that wish to avoid companies not in the C-TPAT program.