Centers Working Group Recommends Continued Communication With the Trade
The working group charged with developing initiatives to bolster the work of CBP's Centers of Excellence and Expertise outlined a number of areas where CBP should continue its work, in a list of recommendations provided ahead of COAC's Sept. 17 quarterly meeting.
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The working group, which is part of the COAC's Secure Trade Lanes Subcommittee and includes CBP officials, offered the following recommendations to CBP:
- To explore and develop methods for creating Center-based communities that allow for more robust and frequent communications between Center staff, Center members, brokers and other trade entities. Increased familiarity between the parties will help facilitate trade, enhance compliance and create processing efficiencies.
- To explore and develop methods for enhancing connectivity between the many parties involved in Center operations, including internal and external stakeholders, such as partner government agencies.
- To embrace opportunities to rebalance the workloads, geographical locations and staffing of the different Centers for the purposes of adapting to and addressing current priorities and risks.
- To institute regular evaluations of Center workloads and staffing to ensure resources are properly balanced to meet these ever-changing priorities and risks.
- To evaluate whether there is a sufficient number of Centers and/or whether the commodity lines encompassed by specific Centers are appropriately aligned.
- To assess the organizational and funding structures of the Centers to ensure that the Centers are properly positioned to maintain the level of customer engagement needed to ensure that the Centers can fulfill their mission. Continuing to pursue these past recommendations will help CBP protect the national and economic security of the country, while ensuring that the principles of fair trade level the playing field.