CUSTOMS OFFICIAL, INDUSTRY APPEAL FOR MORE FUNDING

CUSTOMS OFFICIAL, INDUSTRY APPEAL FOR MORE FUNDING    U.S. Customs Service's deputy commissioner Doug Browning on Thursday told lawmakers his agency needs more funds to tighten supply chain security and facilitate legitimate trade with proposed government initiatives
   Browning asked the House Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government to provide $313 million for funding of the Automated Commercial Environment for fiscal year 2003. The subcommittee, which is responsible for funding and oversight of Customs, allotted the agency $300 million in fiscal 2002.
   “This level of funding will allow us to continue ACE development, and, most importantly, begin to deliver on the first installment of ACE benefits to the trade community,” Browning said.
   Michael Laden, president of Target Customs Brokers Inc., told the subcommittee that adequate funding would allow for ACE, a future umbrella computer system of Customs, to replace Customs' current system, the Automated Commercial System.
   ACE implementation, which would rely on electronic transmission of data, could speed up the customs clearance process and increase national security through accurate information transmission, Laden said.
   “With hundreds of transactions a day, it is difficult for companies to assure that in every instance a cargo container and a paper document will reach the same place at the same time,” he said.
   Kevin Smith, director of customs administration for General Motors Corp., said ACE would replace Customs clearance procedures that have been place since the 1950s. “Simply put, U.S. Customs process has remained unchanged while the rest of the world has moved on.”