Powell’s passion

Involvement in NCBFAA a family custom for current president    Let’s just say that service to the freight forwarding and customs brokerage industry at large runs in the Powell family.
   When Geoffrey Powell assumed the role of president of the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA) three years ago, he was already walking in his father’s footsteps. Peter Powell Sr. served as NCBFAA president for two two-year terms from 1998 to 2002, and the outspoken Boston native provided a strong industry voice to regulatory changes that were impacting both freight forwarders and customs brokers at the time.
   Geoffrey Powell, during this period, served as president of the Baltimore Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association, and headed C.H. Powell Co.’s Baltimore office.
   While the Powells support spirited competition within the multifaceted forwarder and customs broker industry, they firmly believe that “compliance shouldn’t be used as competitive advantage,” Geoffrey Powell said, meaning that regulations should be applied and understood equally by the entire industry.
   The Washington-based NCBFAA has 1,053 company members, ranging in size from small mom-and-pop shops to the largest intermediaries in the world, such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, Kuehne + Nagel and Panalpina. Members are encouraged to take an active role in the association’s numerous committees and subcommittees, which cover a range of regulatory matters.
   “As a company, we gain the benefits of being involved,” Powell said in a wide-ranging sitdown with the Adam Smith Project. “By meeting with all the various government agencies involved in our industry you become a more informed and compliant company yourself.”
   Over the years, non-Powell family members of the C.H. Powell Co. management have also been encouraged to serve on various committee and subcommittee roles in the NCBFAA, as well as in regional chapters. John Peterson, of the company’s Los Angeles office, served as president of the Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association, as well as NCBFAA secretary and head of various national committees.
   Gerald Bresnihan served stints as president of both the Charleston and Savannah customs brokers and freight forwarders associations, while David Katzman was president of the Boston Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association and past NCBFAA treasurer.
   The NCBFAA traces its roots back 120 years, when a group of customs brokers established an association in the Port of New York. Brokers formed similar associations in ports throughout the country over the next 50 years and, by 1962, the NCBFAA was born.
   The Powell family traces its membership to the New York customs broker association to 1926, shortly after the founding of Boston-based C.H. Powell Co. However, numerous other longtime customs broker and forwarder outfits across the country share a similar connection to the NCBFAA, with multi-generational participation in the group’s leadership and regulatory and legislative activities.

   Shaping policy. Many of the NCBFAA’s current members have helped shape federal regulations and policies in terms of trade management for nearly a generation. This includes input into the landmark 1984 Shipping Act, as amended by the 1998 Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA), as well as various customs regulatory, operational, and information technology reforms. The association’s goal is to meet the government’s objectives without unduly burdening the industry and hamstringing the flow of cross-border commerce.
   These efforts often take years of perseverance and conviction by NCBFAA’s members before they’re realized in the government and become industry practice. But for Powell, these activities are worth it, especially if the forwarders and customs brokers are able to achieve most of their goals.
   Case in point, on March 6, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) voted unanimously to amend its rules involving service contracts entered into between liner companies and shippers, and similar contracts called NVOCC Service Arrangements (NSAs) between non-vessel-operating common carriers and shippers. The FMC said the action will “ease regulatory burdens and make the agency’s rules more consistent with how the ocean shipping business is now practiced.”

Over the years, non-Powell family members of the C.H. Powell Co. management have also been encouraged to serve on various committee and subcommittee roles in the NCBFAA, as well as in regional chapters.

   The NCBFAA has been pressing for these changes since the introduction of NSAs by the FMC in 2005. In the past, amendments to the NSAs, such as rate changes, had to be filed with the FMC before they could take commercial effect. This became recognized by the NVOs with complex NSAs as a time-consuming process.
   For the FMC, the rulemaking was the first comprehensive review of the FMC’s service contract regulations in part 530 since promulgating the implementing rules of OSRA, and first substantive revision to NSAs since being introduced.
   Specifically, the rulemaking allows up to 30 days for filing NSAs with the FMC after their effective date, and gives additional time to correct technical data transmission errors from 48 hours to 30 days. It also extends the period in which one can file a service contract correction request from 45 days to 180 days. These changes take effect May 5.

   Face time. In addition to his work at C.H. Powell, Geoff Powell makes trips to Washington nearly twice a week. On March 3, he—along with the NCBFAA’s Legislative Representative Jon Kent, Transportation Committee Chair Jan Fields and General Counsel Ed Greenburg—spent two hours with FMC Acting Chairman Michael Khouri discussing areas for further improving the agency’s regulations.
   One of those changes is the elimination of NVO rate tariffs, or if the FMC is unwilling to take that step, expansion of exemptions for Negotiated Rate Arrangements (NRAs). The FMC defines NRAs as “written and binding arrangements between a shipper and a licensed NVOCC to provide specific transportation service for a stated cargo quantity, from origin to destination, on and after a stated date or within a defined time frame.”
   If an NVO uses NRAs correctly, it doesn’t need to publish that rate in the tariff it makes available to the public, the FMC added.
   The NCBFAA would also like the FMC to eliminate the obligation of NVOs to file NSAs or publish essential terms.
   The FMC said in its March 8 rulemaking that it will “address the requests to eliminate the NSA filing and publication requirements in a separate rulemaking in response to the NCBFAA’s petition.”
   The NCBFAA also often works collectively with other trade associations on matters involving FMC regulations. On Dec. 7, as part of the 25-member Coalition for Fair Port Practices—which includes retailers, manufacturers, truckers, transportation intermediaries and others—the NCBFAA joined in petitioning the FMC to create rules to prevent shippers being charged detention and demurrage fees when uncontrollable incidents, such as storms and dockworker strikes, keep cargo from being picked up at ports or equipment returned on time.
   Powell said he and his NCBFAA team are also looking forward to working with the FMC’s Regulatory Reform Task Force, which was recently announced by Khouri to identify burdensome, unnecessary and outdated directives within the agency, and hear recommendations on how they should be remedied.
   Customs brokers, long considered an extension of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), have spent the past two decades working with the agency to streamline import clearances, eliminate paperwork through automation, and improve the CBP-customs broker relationship.
   For example, in November 2016, the NCBFAA voiced support for CBP’s proposal to electronically publish notices of liquidations, along with suspensions and extensions of liquidation. Under the proposed rule, liquidation information that’s posted on the CBP website will be available for at least 15 months.

Powell said he and his NCBFAA team are also looking forward to working with the FMC’s Regulatory Reform Task Force, which was recently announced by Khouri to identify burdensome, unnecessary and outdated directives within the agency, and hear recommendations on how they should be remedied.

   The ACE effect. Customs brokers have worked closely with CBP over many years on the gradual rollout of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). The NCBFAA has members that have helped shape this system through their involvement with key advisory groups, such as the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) and Trade Support Network.
   Two years ago, Powell set up a weekly conference call with the NCBFAA members to discuss updates to ACE, as well as help craft positions to take back to COAC and the support network. About 30 people on average participate on these calls, he said.
   In January 2015, NCBFAA launched an initiative, approved by CBP, called the Broker-Known Importer Program (BKIP), where licensed customs brokers can voluntarily indicate on an entry-by-entry basis that the importer with which they’re conducting business is known to them and ensures the importer understands the customs regulations that apply to them.
   CBP is made aware of the importer’s involvement in BKIP through an ACE indicator. The concept behind the program is that only a limited number of importers currently participate in Customs’ Importer Self-Assessment and other trusted trader programs, and BKIP brings more importers into the fold.
   In addition, the NCBFAA has assisted its members in preparing for ACE’s implementation through numerous seminars, webinars, and papers.
   “As an association, we want to help them migrate to the new Customs platform,” Powell said.
   An executive order from former President Obama requires all agencies with oversight of trade issues to conduct business in the International Trade Data System (ITDS), a single channel for routing documentation to agencies without redundant filing, by the end of the year. ITDS is the front-end of ACE.
   Most trade functions have been transitioned from CBP’s legacy system, the Automated Commercial System, to ACE. However, in mid-January, CBP announced it was postponing for the second time in several months the ACE deployment of several post-release capabilities related to entry filing, such as drawback, reconciliation, duty deferral, collections, statements and the Automated Surety Interface.
   Although CBP had not indicated it was considering another delay, industry representatives, such as the NCBFAA, had communicated with agency officials that they needed more time for testing and development of their software that communicates with ACE.
   “Suspending it was good,” Powell said. “We don’t want CBP to put out new functionality that’s not been sufficiently tested . . . Drawback and reconciliation—the financial pieces—we need to make sure they’re right.”

   An educating force. Powell remains most proud of the NCBFAA’s role as an educator and enhancer of professionalism within the customs broker and forwarder industry through its certification programs, such as the Certified Customs Specialist (CCS) and Certified Export Specialist (CES). However, it has bothered him for years that the association didn’t have a program focused on export compliance.
   That changed this month with the NCBFAA Educational Institute’s announcement of the Master Export Specialist (MES) program. The 10-module online certification program takes about 60 hours to complete, and provides a substantive approach to understanding exporting from the United States, international sales contracts, U.S. trade compliance, air and ocean exports, the North American Free Trade Agreement, export documentation, managing electronic export information, international payment terms and U.S. free trade agreements.
   Powell is hopeful that the focus on export control compliance in the NCBFAA will lead to the development of an NCBFAA-fostered program similar to BKIP.
   “CBP liked the BKIP program,” he said. “They’ve always seen the broker as a force multiplier. We want to do the same on the export side with Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security—develop a trusted trader program on the export side.”