Customs Chief Wants Better Broker Relations

(CSCB – Journal of Commerce)

CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin concedes working partnership ‘polarized’ over demands

U.S. Customs and brokers traditionally worked together in what Bersin called village atmosphere to facilitate trade and to ensure import duties were paid and contraband did not enter the country. However, the September 11 terror attacks changed that as the agency took the lead in fighting the potential for terrorist exploitation of the supply chain, straining relations with trade facilitators as requirements and restrictions mounted.

“The village has been polarized,” Bersin told the annual Western Cargo Conference of the Pacific Coast Council of forwarders and brokers in San Diego. Read more here.