New Zealand to certify exporters for C-TPAT

New Zealand to certify exporters for C-TPAT U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to formally announce this week in Brussels that it has recognized New Zealand’s supply chain security program as meeting U.S. standards and will reward imports from accredited New Zealand companies with fewer security inspections at ports of entry, CBP officials said last week.
   The announcement is expected to take place during the World Customs Organization's annual conclave in Brussels. The WCO’s global framework of security and trade facilitation standards encourages customs agencies to establish cargo security partnerships with industry with the goal that membership in one program would qualify for customs benefits in another country.
   Under the cooperative arrangement with the United States, New Zealand Customs will verify that exporters have met standards for securely packing containers without any smuggled goods and transporting them to the port. It will share the results for companies that have applied for the voluntary program with CBP, which will grant those boxes low-risk status and make them eligible to bypass inbound inspection.
   CBP specialists have conducted joint training and validations of local exporters with New Zealand Customs, and the agency is comfortable that its Pacific counterpart follows the same methodology for verifying companies have strong processes in place to secure their freight shipments, Todd Owen, head of cargo and conveyance security at CBP, said last week at the American Association of Exporters and Importers conference in New York.
   CBP’s acceptance of New Zealand’s Secure Export Partnership Scheme as equivalent to its own Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is the first time a country has mutually recognized another’s supply chain security program, although the recognition is only partial at this time since there is no C-TPAT component for tightening security practices for U.S. exports.
   CBP initially stated in May that it would grant reciprocal status to New Zealand’s supply chain security program.
   Owen said CBP is likely to soon recognize Jordan’s “Golden List” supply chain security program as well.
   Both New Zealand and Jordan are very small trading partners with the United States, but CBP views them as good test cases for the concept of mutual recognition.
   In other developments, Owen said CBP would soon augment the C-TPAT program by opening new C-TPAT offices in Buffalo, N.Y., and Houston, raising to seven the number of field offices where supply chain security specialists interact with importers in the voluntary program.
   CBP hopes to bring on board 40 additional auditors by the end of the year using new funding from Congress, he said. The additions would bring the C-TPAT force to 196 officers.
   CBP also plans to open up new industry enrollment sectors, including Mexican highway carriers that operate within the country, foreign terminal operators and third-party logistics providers, Owen said. Mexican trucking companies that shuttle goods across the border are already allowed to apply for C-TPAT status.
   CBP hopes to have security criteria in place covering 3PLs by the end of the summer, but the process is more difficult because the logistics industry uses so many subcontractors, Owen said. CBP will then turn its attention to setting requirements and opening the program to bonded warehouses and Foreign Trade Zones by the fall, he added.