CBP to Give Full Industry Trade Processing Responsibilities to Three CEEs
Three Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEEs) will soon begin to handle processing all entries for their respective industries, said Acting CBP Commissioner Thomas Winkowski March 6 while speaking at the CBP Trade Symposium. The coming shift -- currently only certain companies are allowed to make use of the CEEs -- marks a major step in CBP's plans to open use of the CEEs to all filers. The CEEs are among CBP's major efforts in moving to a more virtual trade processing environment.
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The Electronics CEE in New York, the Pharmaceutical CEE in Los Angeles and the Petroleum CEE in Houston will become the first centers to handle entries for entire industries, said Winkowski. Initially, CBP will use an internal order to transfer authorities of the port director to the CEE, he said. Eventually, the agency will move to make permanent regulatory changes to give the CEEs the necessary authorities, he said. CBP previously transferred some authority to the CEE directors through a pilot program (see 12082733).
Winkowski did not provide more information on timing of the changes, though he said the subject would be of further discussion during the symposium. CBP has previously said it planned for the CEEs to eventually begin handling the processing of all entries based on industry, regardless of trusted trader status (see 13041522). The change to the three CEEs will give CBP the ability to closely monitor how well the idea works and modify as needed on a smaller scale, Winkowski said.
During a later panel on North American trade, Winkowski said the CEE idea is something that may translate to other areas of trade processing. One idea that has been discussed internally would be a CEE based on trade agreements, he said. Such an initiative, whether actually called a CEE or something else, would be useful as a way to reduce duplicate requirements as goods move in and out of countries that the U.S. has trade agreements with.