WCO takes baby steps towards mutual recognition of certified shippers

WCO takes baby steps towards mutual recognition of certified shippers    Mutual recognition of trusted shipper programs for supply chain security, under which companies certified by a home government as having strong internal shipment controls receive expedited customs clearance by the receiving nation, “is a distant goal,” said Keith Thomson, U.S. Customs and Border Protection assistant commissioner for international affairs.
   The World Customs Organization is working to develop implementing guidelines for the broad framework of global security and trade facilitation standards adopted last year. But new standards for industry partnership programs will have to be very general, because most countries do not have mature programs like the U.S. Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, Thomson said last week at a meeting of the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC).
   The WCO’s first objective when it comes to authorized economic operators is to define the main principles for security standards that are acceptable across the board, and then implement them through bilateral agreements, Thomson said.
   “It’s too complex right now” to list detailed steps for how countries should set up private sector supply chain security programs, he said. Separate national agreements will be necessary to get more specificity about what each country expects from the standards before granting inspection-free rights to shippers designated as secure by a trading partner, Thomson said.
   C-TPAT, the program established by the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, grants reduced rates of security inspections at ports of entry for shippers and their suppliers who have voluntarily implemented systems to ensure the integrity of their foreign shipments. CBP sends teams to foreign manufacturing plants and transportation hubs to verify that shippers have agreed upon security measures in place.
   The WCO is modeling its authorized economic operator program on C-TPAT and similar programs in a handful of other countries. International companies are interested in a system in which countries can certify domestic companies and have those findings accepted by other countries so they don’t have to comply with different security regimes in each country in which they operate. The trick is coming up with mutually agreed upon standards for what constitutes adequate security.
   “It will be years before (other countries) work well with the private sector” and can have functioning AEO systems, Thomson said.
   Until then, the United States will have to work out bilateral arrangements with countries it feels have developed their supply chain security programs to a level that meets C-TPAT levels.
   “We will get to a threshold and then have to work bilaterally,” Acting Commissioner Deborah Spero said.