NAFTA Could Pave Way for Trilateral Single Window and Cement Ongoing Customs Work, Panelists Say
Renegotiations of NAFTA could be an opportunity for the U.S. to push for a common North American single-window platform, panelists said during a U.S.-Mexico trade and security event on June 14. “We have to harmonize the whole enchilada. There’s no other way,” said Jose Martin Garcia, a representative for the Mexican Customs Administration at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, during an event hosted by the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and the Border Trade Alliance. “We’re already starting. I don’t know if it’s going to take two years, five years, ten years. Is the NAFTA renegotiation an opportunity to work on that? Perhaps.”
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.
Martin added that full-scale single-window harmonization won’t “happen overnight.” While U.S. and Mexican cargo manifests are becoming more closely aligned, governmental agricultural certificates and other areas are still in the queue, Martin said.
Speaking during a separate panel, Border Trade Alliance (BTA) Chairman Russ Jones said his organization would like to see a streamlining of port procedures into single processes enshrined in any new NAFTA. In comments to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (see 1706130035), BTA pitched this concept, as well as an idea for creation of a North American working group similar to CBP’s Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee, for inclusion in the upcoming NAFTA renegotiation.
Mexico plans to install modernized automated inspection systems for cargo at the Mesa de Otay Port of Entry in July, removing customs officers from the primary customs process, Martin said. “The system works this way: We have license plate readers and optical character readers, and RFID [radio frequency identification] readers that will identify the shipment, the driver, the truck, the box, everything,” he said. “All the data is run through risk management and targeting systems, as we do today, but to do that today, we have an officer in the primary booth reading … customs entries, and then the system works out and determines if the shipment is subject to inspection.”
Trucks will enter Mexico through this new automated system, which will determine whether the cargo is subject to secondary inspection, and the exit points have a control that won’t let trucks pass unless they’re released, Martin said. Switching to this system is expected to cut average processing times down to 17 seconds, and Mexico in the coming months plans to have installed the new technology in all San Diego/Tijuana ports of entry, the precursor of an expansion of the system eastward to all other ports of entry along the U.S./Mexico border, he said.
Combining “redundant” U.S. and Mexican cargo inspections into a single uniform cargo process at the Mariposa Port of Entry has “had a direct impact” on cutting wait times for truck cargo crossing into the U.S. there, CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said during the event. A uniform inspection pilot at the port of entry that started in August (see 1608090033) has cut a 3 1/2-hour “and beyond” two-step process into a process of under one hour in most cases, he said. “We’ve given carte blanche to our directors of field operations, our port directors, to bring the innovative ideas up and go after them, and that’s been very well-received by our partners on the Mexican side,” McAleenan said. “I think you’ll see more unified cargo processing. It’s already expanded in Arizona. I’d like to see it in Texas. I think there’s some opportunity in multiple locations along the border.” CBP also hopes to partner with the new Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City for a preclearance project to “the entire U.S.,” McAleenan said.
The U.S. and Mexico should continue to cooperate on trade enforcement issues, too, as both nations have industries hurt by steel dumping, intellectual property issues, and “forced labor elements that are creeping into supply chains from southeast Asia,” McAleenan said. CBP and Mexican customs have agreed to partner against forced labor goods, he said.