U.S. forges ahead on supply chain security strategy

U.S. forges ahead on supply chain security strategy    Developing the U.S. government's national strategy for securing the global supply chain has bogged down in the White House's National Security Council, where it has been under review since at least early April, a Department of Homeland Security official told industry members.
   The briefing with DHS's Commercial Operations Advisory Committee took place at a public meeting Aug. 18 in Los Angeles.
   Congress several years ago instructed DHS to develop a global supply chain security strategy, but the Obama administration expanded the effort's reach to encompass the entire government and how it should strive to enhance the security of cross-border freight transportation across all modes.
   The goal is to have a holistic approach for preventing, mitigating and responding to supply chain disruptions from manmade causes such as terrorism or natural disasters.
   The strategy is expected to identify gaps in the roles and responsibilities of federal and state agencies, and private sector stakeholders, and recommend legislative, regulatory and organizational changes to address them. The completed document will guide the government's interaction with the private sector and foreign governments, and how it allocates resources in the budget.
   Supporting plans for various aspects of the global supply chain security strategy are also getting a final scrub by two panels of maritime and transborder security experts at the NSC, said Ellen McClain, assistant general counsel for enforcement in the Office of Policy.
   Once the entire package of policy documents has been reviewed and revised it will be sent back to agencies for their final two-week review, and then go through a couple of White House clearances before it is submitted to President Obama.
   Christa Brzozowski, director of cargo and transportation security policy at DHS, is being temporarily assigned for one year to the NSC to help finalize and implement the strategy for securing international flows of commerce, McClain said.
   Kemba Walden will serve as acting director in her absence.

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   After the strategy is released, the administration plans to solicit industry feedback through DHS's Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council, which includes representatives from various federal and state agencies as well as the private sector, McClain said.
   The White House eventually plans to issue an action plan providing guidance to all agencies on how to align their budgets and programs with the supply chain security strategy.
   DHS officials are simultaneously working on two tracks:
   ' Developing a national strategy for protecting the U.S. piece of the global supply chain.
   ' Building international consensus for harmonizing standards and guidelines among nations to increase cargo and transport security without harming legitimate trade.
   Since January, DHS officials have engaged the World Customs Organization, the International Maritime Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Universal Postal Union, as well as individual countries and private sector groups, to develop common criteria for securing the supply chain using efficient customs controls, and enabling the trading system to bounce back quickly if there is a terrorist incident or natural disaster that causes shipping disruptions.
   McClain said the coordination effort is focused on seven areas:
   ' Creating more agile international communications and common approaches to understanding threats, analyzing risk and responding to security concerns.
   ' Expanding advance cargo information requirements across all modes, especially aviation, similar to those in place for the maritime domain. Air cargo information will be sought prior to departure.
   ' Streamlining trusted trader programs through harmonized standards for the U.S. Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and Authorized Economic Operator programs created by other countries under a WCO model.
   The eventual goal is for companies that undergo prescreening for meeting minimum-security criteria and best practices in one country to have reviews accepted with confidence by other countries without having to undergo a separate application and audit process. Countries such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, New Zealand, the European Union and Singapore have struck several bilateral mutual recognition agreements among each other, although implementation has been limited so far. Customs chiefs in the Asia-Pacific region have set a goal of working to increase the number of mutual recognition agreements by June 2012.
   ' Stemming the flow of illicit shipments of dangerous materials, through the WCO's Global Shield program and similar efforts aimed at identifying and tracking shipments of precursor chemicals used to make improvised explosive devices to prevent their illegal diversion. Similar systems for preventing the smuggling of nuclear and radiological material are being discussed.
   ' Securing and facilitating air cargo and global mail by creating security incident response mechanisms, advance data on mail shipments and international standards for screening.
   ' Improving trade recovery by agreeing on common types of information that needs to be shared after a transportation disruption to enable the private sector to make rapid, informed business continuity decisions, such as which ports to use, and facilitate governments' implementation of those decisions.
   ' Exploring and deploying new technologies, such as internationally standardized X-ray systems for scanning cargo and vehicles, and nuclear detection devices.
   Supply chain security harmonization will be discussed further by senior officials, industry representatives and academics at a mid-September conference held in San Francisco by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.
   Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stressed in June that better security and expediting the flow of legitimate trade complement, rather than contradict, each other. In a keynote address to the American Association of Exporters and Importers annual conference in New York, she expressed full support for Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin's initiative to simplify trade compliance, increase automation and upgrade security requirements so that known companies with proven security plans can be processed faster, with less hassle at the border.
   Her message: 'That we, and the entire DHS, and indeed the entire administration, are fully committed both to security and economic growth, especially when it comes to imports and exports. By providing the greatest possible security as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible we can best facilitate the flow of legitimate travel and trade, and prioritize our resources' on people and goods that pose the highest risk.'
   The goal is to ensure that DHS policies and security measures don't hinder cross-border transactions so that businesses can easily pursue overseas opportunities, Napolitano added.
   The fact that global trade is so interconnected now means that a disruption in one part of the world can impact deliveries of supply to other countries and securing it requires an international approach to managing the flow of freight transportation and travelers, she said.
   The ability of the United States to reach out to ICAO, the Air Transport Association and the International Air Transport Association and reach agreement on aviation security standards for passengers within 10 months of the Christmas Day 2009 suicide bombing attempt of a jet landing at Detroit's airport serves as a precedent for achieving an international supply chain security regime, Napolitano said. She acknowledged the new effort would be more difficult because of the decentralized nature of international trade and its reliance on multiple modes of transport.
   Global Shield, she added, is another building block because more than 70 nations and Interpol are already participating to prevent terrorists from obtaining dangerous materials. Authorities have seized more than 33 metric tons of chemicals, primarily ammonium nitrate, so far, Napolitano said in a speech two weeks later before the WCO's annual council meeting in Brussels, Belgium.
   'In the wrong hands, this could become hundreds, even thousands, of improvised explosive devices,' she said.
   The DHS secretary expressed satisfaction with early progress made by the WCO and ICAO developing a updated risk assessment protocols and a common definition of high-risk cargo.
   'Common definitions of risks and responses utilized by both customs and transportation security authorities will allow governments to streamline processes and leverage expertise — meaning that we can all do more with less, and reduce the economic impact on industry,' she said in Brussels.
   The IMO also recently approved guidance regarding the implementation of its 2004 International Ship and Port Facility Code, which requires countries to develop and implement antiterrorism plans for port facilities, according to the secretary. ' Eric Kulisch