CBP Hopes to More Closely Involve Other Government Agencies in CEEs, Though Issues Remain
CBP would like to get representatives from other government agencies (OGAs) involved in import processing to play a bigger role within the Centers of Excellence and Expertise, said Judith-Anne Webster, an analyst with the Pharmaceutical, Chemical, and Health CEE. "That's the goal," and the agency is actively working to get other agencies on board, she said while speaking at the American Conference Institute's Customs Boot Camp conference on Nov. 19. While right now some of those agencies, the FDA for instance, are "players within the Center," they are hoped to eventually be "fully functioning members" within the CEEs, she said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
There remain some limitations on making that possible, she said. One issue is that some agencies do not have the staffing to increase involvement within the CEEs, said Webster. Information sharing issues are another problem standing in the way between better involvement by the OGAs in the CEEs, she said. While the CEEs already do work very closely with the other agencies, CBP would like to better understand the processing behind other agency admissibility determinations, she said. Policy people at CBP and other agencies are working to ease some of the regulatory issues involved, she said.