CBP Looking to Expand CTPAT to E-Commerce, Discussing With Select Section 321 Participants
CBP is looking to expand the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) to include e-commerce, agency officials said at the 2023 Trade Facilitation and Cargo Security Summit on April 18. As part of that effort, CBP has begun to have conversations with a subsection of members of the Section 321 data pilot to better understand e-commerce and how it compares with a traditional supply chain, Bryant Van Buskirk, director of CBP's Los Angeles CTPAT Office, said.
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The goal is that by working with those groups, CBP and those working under the data pilot can "self-identify" what pieces of their shipments "actually align currently with their business and where things may not align," and craft minimum security measures based on those findings, Van Buskirk said.
CBP's James Moore said that the expansion of CTPAT into e-commerce can help the trade community self-police and called it a "force multiplier" for the agency. "When the trade community can police itself and be a force multiplier for customs, [those are] really the steps that we want to look forward to," said Moore, who is program manager for manifest and conveyance security at CBP.
Moore explained that, in looking to the future of the expanded CTPAT, CBP is looking at companies that meet a high bar in order to join the partnership. Creating a high bar will help ensure that companies are "held accountable" to a higher level and that customers can rest assured that they are not buying violative products, Moore said. There's a lot of volume and we need to work smarter. [So] that's one of the ways that we really want to lower the haystack, where we want to think smarter," Moore said.
As far as when CTPAT for e-commerce will be ready, officials are hoping to be done by FY 2024 but that timeline is "very optimistic," Van Buskirk said. "A lot has to happen between then and now and we're already halfway through the year. So yes, we are looking at a very optimistic timeline to try to get this moving," he said.