BONNER ACCEPTS COAC CARGO SECURITY REPORT

BONNER ACCEPTS COAC CARGO SECURITY REPORT    U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner, at a meeting with industry executives in Washington Friday, received an industry-based set of recommendations to U.S. Customs to enhance security in international trade.
   The security recommendations were contained in a report, “Improving U.S. Border and Supply Chain Security,” prepared by the U.S. Treasury Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC).
   Bonner, in accepting the report, said Customs officials would consider the recommendations for tightening security against the threat of terrorism. “It is a continuing threat,” he said. “The worst thing we could possibly do at this moment would be to let our guard down.”'
   COAC, co-chaired by James Finnegan, director of Global Trade Services for Kulicke and Soffa, and Michael Laden, president of Target Customs Brokers, presented this document as the result of work of four committees following industry meetings last November.
   Finnegan told Bonner that the report would only be effective if its recommendations were approached in a strategic manner, and the directives will require heavy inter-agency work among U.S. government branches.
   “It is imperative that other federal agencies have an input in this process,” he said.
   COAC's study recommends that Customs and other agencies focus on goods at their country of origin, rather than once it arrives in the United States. If dangerous items or weapons of mass destruction arrive on American shores, it is too late.
   “It really begins at the country of origin,” and not at the borders, he said.'
   However, for such a practice to emerge, it would require not only improved inter-agency cooperation, but improved international communications between Customs officials, as well as the implementation of advanced technology for intelligence dissemination. More importantly, Finnegan said, this new approach to Customs security would require a new mindset. For far too long, he said, Customs has looked at security as something applied to goods when they touch American shores. “What we are putting forth here is almost a reverse on Customs psychology,” Finnegan said.
   Finnegan also pushed for more funding of automated systems for customs clearance, particularly for the Automated Commercial Environment, Customs’ future computer system.