McAleenan welcomes advice on migrant influx

   U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s leading trade advisory committee plans to release recommendations to the agency on how to improve trade opportunities in the countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador during its next meeting Buffalo, N.Y. on Aug. 21. 
   The Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) was tasked by then CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan (pictured above) during its Feb. 27 meeting in Washington, D.C., with establishing the Northern Triangle Working Group. 
   The working group’s goal was to develop recommendations that could be used by the U.S. government and industry to improve cross-border trade flows of the three countries, which should further improve their national economies and stem the exodus of migrants to the U.S.
    The Northern Triangle Working Group’s membership has since grown to more than 50 stakeholders, including not only members of the trade but involvement from nongovernmental organizations and the U.N. Brian White, director of global compliance, trade and responsible sourcing for J.M. Smucker Co. (NYSE: SJM), and Lenny Feldman, an attorney with international trade law firm Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg and co-chair of COAC, led the working group.
   White said since its formation, the working group held numerous weekly calls to develop recommendations that focus on reducing trade and non-trade barriers in the Northern Triangle region. Putting together those final recommendations was “no small task,” he told attendees at the CBP Trade Symposium in Chicago Tuesday.  
   The working group’s final report focuses on five areas to improve trade conditions in the Northern Triangle region, including increased foreign investment, better use of existing free trade agreements and foreign trade zones, investment in reliable and cost-effective energy production, improvements to the professionalism of the border agencies and providing capacity building not only to those countries’ customs administrations but also their local industries. 
   Ian Saunders, assistant commissioner to the Office of International Affairs at CBP, said he looks forward to receiving the report and reviewing the COAC working group’s recommendations.
   McAleenan, now acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, praised COAC during the trade symposium for following through on developing the Northern Triangle recommendations. Since early this year, he has been outspoken about the plight of migrant families from the Central American region and has sought to improve economic conditions for the people within those countries to discourage the need to migrate to the U.S.
   “There are solutions out there and I do think the trade community has a huge piece in it,” he told the trade symposium attendees. “This is a problem that we have to solve.”
   Since last year, the U.S. has experienced what’s been called a humanitarian crisis on its southern border with Mexico with the massive influx of migrants from the Northern Triangle who are seeking asylum in the U.S. About 70% of the migrants arriving at the U.S. southern border today are from the Northern Triangle region, said Michael Dougherty, assistant secretary for border, immigration and trade policy at the Department of Homeland Security.