CBP Outlines Achievements, Best Practices Under C-TPAT

(World Trade Interactive)

At its recent Trade Symposium in Washington, D.C., U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials gave a presentation on what has been achieved to date under the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and the best practices that CBP has identified among C-TPAT participants.

Achievements

CBP provided the following statistics on its efforts under C-TPAT.

• There are 8,647 certified C-TPAT partners, including 4,082 importers, 2,311 carriers, 755 brokers, 758 foreign manufacturers, 688 consolidators and 53 marine port authorities and terminal operators.
• 9,521 validations have been completed, including 7,710 initial validations and 1,811 re-validations.
• Initial validations declined from 2,561 in 2007 to 1,401 in 2008, while re-validations increased from 575 to 1,220.
• 411 participants (including 213 highway carriers) have been suspended from C-TPAT and 271 (including 114 highway carriers)have been removed.
• There are 267 Tier 3 importers.
• There are seven C-TPAT field offices with a total of 195 staff.
• CBP has mutual recognition arrangements with New Zealand, Canada and Jordan; mutual recognition projects with Australia, the European Union, Japan and Singapore; technical assistance projects with Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines and Guatemala; and capacity building training programs with Ghana, Brazil and Kenya.

Best Practices

CBP listed the following as confirmed best practices for C-TPAT participants.

• maintaining a consistent C-TPAT point of contact
• regular monitoring of both C-TPAT Web site and portal account
• security profile maintenance beyond required annual self-assessment
• follow-up questionnaires and inquiries to business partners and providers (outside of initial effort)
• notification to CBP and assigned supply chain security specialist in the event of any security breach or anomaly
• inspection of providers’ facilities by participant personnel
• not allowing double brokering within the supply chain
• using only known providers within the supply chain (specifically other C-TPAT providers)
• establishing C-TPAT committees, working groups or regular meetings and having providers participate in supply chain security meetings or councils
• making C-TPAT participation part of the overall supply chain operation and not a singular program
• random audits by management of processes outside of normal established procedures
• keeping documentation of all supply chain incidents, anomalies or issues for future reference