CBP Commissioner Bersin Meets with Trade Groups in Roundtable
On October 27, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Bersin hosted a series of roundtable discussions with leaders of trade associations on their issues and concerns. The President of the National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), a domestic textile industry association, presented the NCTO's concerns with illegal textile and apparel transshipments involving falsified certificates of origin. CBP also discussed its initiatives ACE, simplified entry pilot, and the Centers for Excellence and Expertise with other roundtable participants.
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(Other trade association leaders at the meeting included the Customs Automotive Round Table, American Association of Exporters and Importers, Retail Industry Leaders Association, and the International Compliance Professionals Association.)
Domestic Textile Industry Voiced Concerns with Transshipment Schemes
President of the NCTO Cass Johnson stated that the U.S. apparel trade has begun to shift back to the Western Hemisphere due to increasing costs in Asia. He stated his constituency has major concerns about fraud and transshipment schemes that involve the falsifying of certificates of origin. The NCTO estimates that a billion dollars in U.S. revenue is lost because of textile fraud and duties that have not been collected. Johnson states the NCTO wants to make sure that other countries don’t illegally take advantage of the U.S.' competitive edge and that Customs enforcement is the industry’s number one priority.
Associations also Discussed CBP Initiatives with ACE, Simplified Entry , CEEs
Bersin stated that CBP needs to partner with industry to protect the nation’s interests and for other changes CBP is currently implementing to enhance trade. Trade association leaders also discussed CBP initiatives including the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), a simplified entry pilot that will be launched in December 2011, and two new Centers for Excellence and Expertise (CEEs) that were established on October 1, 2011 for the pharmaceutical and electronics industries.
(See ITT's Online Archives 11100510 for summary of CBP officials discussing its plans for a simplified entry pilot before the end of 2011.
See ITT's Online Archives 11102610 for summary of CBP's establishment of permanent CEEs for the pharmaceutical and electronics industries.
See ITT's Online Archives 11101723 for CBP's October 2011 status update on its ACE projects.)