U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will run an 18 month program to test a long-anticipated Trusted Trader program in collaboration with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Dozens of U.S. government agencies have legal and regulatory authorities on imported goods. This multi-agency partnership is a significant step in merging the respective agencies’ security and oversight roles into more of a “whole of government” approach to secure, efficient international trade.
The program will in effect combine two existing programs in which importers can voluntarily provide CBP with information on their supply chains and internal regulatory and legal controls in exchange for special benefits. Combining the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and Importer Self-Assessment (ISA) programs also better aligns the U.S. Trusted Trader program with similar types of ‘Authorized Economic Operator’ (AEO) programs used around the world.
Mondaq with the update.
