CBP, other U.S. agencies on track for single window deadline

Customs and Border Protection official at WCO conference said the cultural and IT differences between agencies have been challenges to building a common platform for trade regulation.    A U.S. Customs and Border Protection official on Thursday said the goal of creating a single window for traders that links 47 U.S. agencies by the end of 2016 is on track. Brenda Smith, assistant commissioner for international trade, was speaking to delegates at the World Customs Organization’s IT Summit being held this week in Freeport, Bahamas.
   Much of the WCO conference in Freeport has been dedicated to discussion of so-called single windows – including the benefits to the trading community of such an approach and the challenges in architecting such complex platforms.
   President Barack Obama in February 2014 issued an executive order requiring CBP to coordinate with 47 other U.S. agencies to expedite development of a common platform for sharing of data on trade-related issues. The International Trade Data System has been in development for more than a decade, but only in recent years has the program gained momentum.
   The government-wide data transmission pipeline will be powered by CBP’s new Automated Commercial Environment IT system to allow companies to file data once instead of multiple times to multiple agencies. Cargo interests will be required to file entries and entry summaries via ACE Nov. 1, 2016.
   “The message from the trading community is that we’re moving too fast, which is music to the ears of a governmental agency,” Smith said jokingly.
   As for lessons learned from the single window process, Smith said CBP had not properly planned for the time it would take to sort out the cultural differences between it and other agencies. Nor did it expect to find such major differences in the way the various agencies build IT. For example, she said, CBP has spent a lot of time simply discussing IT testing processes with another agency. “We just didn’t plan for those differences,” said Smith.
   Another roadblock has been coordinating nomenclature across multiple agencies. “Two agencies may use different product codes for the same products,” she said.
   In the end, CBP is using harmonized system codes as the identifier for agencies involved in the single window process.
   Smith said data protection has been another concern as up to 47 different agencies share data that might have previously been confined to just CBP. “There has been a challenge around the protection of data because of the confidentiality of data shared with us by traders,” she said.
   CBP has had to temper sister agencies’ excitement about potential access to new data sources. “We know better, that you only ask for the data you need,” she said. “There’s a cost to acquire and manage data.”
   As the single window deadline nears, CBP’s present challenge is convincing the trading community that this is really happening.
   “Most of our trade partners don’t believe we’re going to meet our dates,” said Smith. “It’s not just about data and building systems. We’ve spent a lot of time communicating with the private sector and other agencies, from the CEO of a major importer to a customs entry writer who needs to know what data elements they need to include.”