U.S. Customs extends authority of some CEEs

Centralized industry offices will be able to uniformly process import documents better than ports.    Three of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise will transition beyond the test phase and assume trade processing for all transactions associated with their respective industries beginning Jan. 28, the agency announced Friday.
   The industry integration centers consolidate internal expertise, eliminate significant duplication of work for compliant importers and enable inspectors at ports of entry to focus on checking high-risk shipments.
   The CEEs for Electronics; Petroleum, Natural Gas and Minerals; and Pharmaceuticals, Health and Chemicals will be the first to achieve full operational status, Customs said.
   CBP began setting up CEEs in 2011 to build best practices and regulatory consistency, as well as reduce transaction costs for businesses by moving post-release compliance reviews away from ports of entry to virtual centers organized by industry experts. Companies bringing goods through multiple ports can get several requests for information about their shipment and have to respond to each one, or get different answers about specific regulatory requirements. The centers perform all validation activities, protests and post entry amendment/post summary correction reviews for entry summaries under their jurisdiction.
   The units essentially function as resource hubs for CBP, other government agencies and the private sector. CBP specialists develop in-depth expertise about the shipments and requirements of products in their specialty area with the goal of ensuring uniform handling of inbound cargo across ports of entry, quickly resolving trade compliance issues and serving as a single point of contact for questions and concerns.
   The industry integration centers are able to handle more complex enforcement work and, therefore, achieve greater results on duty evasion, import safety and theft of intellectual property rights.
   The centers are a key part of the agency’s broader effort to employ modern account-management principles, reduce costs, target enforcement on high-risk shipments and importers, and become a more customer-oriented organization that makes trade facilitation a priority. They are popular within the trade community because they allow a higher quality interaction with CBP import specialists, who look at a company’s overall import pattern rather than focusing on individual transactions to determine a company’s level of compliance. That approach cuts down on penalizing companies for insignificant infractions.
   “The Centers for Excellence and Expertise are transforming the way CBP processes trade and works with the international trade community,” said Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske in a statement. “All trade processing will now be performed under the authority of the respective industry center instead of at one of the hundreds of CBP ports of entry resulting in a more efficient process that will increase U.S. economic security.”
   CBP’s legal branch has issued a delegation order allowing the Centers to incrementally assume trade functions, including revenue collection, from port directors and build up their staffs during the next six months, according to the agency.
   Kerlikowske said in an address last November at the Council of the Americas that once the three CEEs are running smoothly, the other seven Centers will be brought to full operational capacity.