After Customs Reauthorization, CBP Beefing Up Trade Enforcement, Kerlikowske Tells Senators
CBP will be “much more aggressive” in enforcing trade laws, and will use tools including withhold release orders, seizure, and review of financing streams, CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske told the Senate Finance Committee during a May 11 CBP oversight hearing. CBP is also stressing to industry the usefulness of simple tipoffs of potential trade crimes, despite the fact that stakeholders have submitted more formal documentation, like position papers, to request CBP enforcement action, Kerlikowske said. This should help small or medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to request action at a lower cost, he said.
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To further aid trade enforcement, CBP “would be very appreciative” of any Congressional effort to expand port services, especially at airports, which face yearly caps in terms of how many can apply or accept additional service funding, Kerlikowske said. One example is the Port of Philadelphia, which has hired additional agricultural inspectors to ensure food safety, he said. "As long as we’re transparent about how many people you get for how many hours, and how much it will cost, it seems that ... business has been very accepting of this," Kerlikowske said. A copy of written testimony from Kerlikowske is (here).
CBP has been implementing the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTA), also known as customs reauthorization, since it was signed into law in February. New enforcement mechanisms, such as the Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Division (TRLED), should help CBP continue to share information with potential victims of trade crimes, and to be more open to information that could help the agency hunt down violators, as nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders have asked the agency to adopt a more “forward-leaning posture,” Kerlikowske said. As required by customs reauthorization, CBP plans to issue an interim final rule on TRLED's function and structure by late August, he said.
CBP has made headway implementing most key directives of the customs bill, Kerlikowske said, but challenges still remain. Implementing different regulations by deadlines outlined in the new law has been “difficult, because there are a lot of regulations that are being met,” Kerlikowske told reporters after the hearing. “But the general thrust of sharing more information with those that may have been harmed, being more accepting of where we can go with potential information that may lead to a violation, all of those things are very clear,” Kerlikowske told reporters. “When I was in the Oval Office and the President signed the customs authorization act, as I was leaving, he pulled me aside, and said, ‘Make sure we’re doing the enforcement.’ So I’ve heard it here [at Congress], and I’ve heard it, certainly, from the President.”
Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., during the hearing expressed concern about CBP's staffing shortages, as several lawmakers have in the recent past. Kerlikowske said the agency is looking to make its hiring process more flexible, including considering new employee age requirements and allowing hirers to forgo onboarding practices like polygraph tests if a job candidate immediately indicates an unsuitability for the applied position. National Treasury Employees Union National President Tony Reardon did not testify at the hearing, but submitted testimony to the committee echoing the senators' concerns, but also calling on Congress to allocate enough resources to buoy CBP.
CBP will self-initiate investigations into whether imported goods were produced through forced labor, and the agency has added 24 people to its task force targeting forced-labor goods, and recently received additional funding to hire nine foreign attaches toward those efforts, Kerlikowske said. CBP will apply the “standard of reasonable suspicion” to goods alleged to have been produced through forced labor, as opposed to the less inclusive “beyond exclusion of every reasonable doubt” standard, he said.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., said he wants to work with CBP in tracking and intercepting counterfeit goods, after learning from an Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development report (see 1604180020) that counterfeiters exploit U.S. brands more than any other country’s goods. Menendez added that U.S. companies hurt by counterfeit imports should be reimbursed for past duties paid. “We don’t want them to pay that which they’re not responsible for,” Menendez said, adding that he hopes to work with Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, on the matter as well. “And when they do, and it is upheld that they have paid more than they should, then we should have the wherewithal, finding the means…to get people reimbursed.”