WASHINGTON, D.C.—U.S. Customs and Border Protection participated in the 13th term of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) on May 22. The meeting emphasized the importance of expanding public private partnerships and modernizing trade processes as well as offer the opportunity to make recommendations on specific international trade issues to CBP leadership and other U.S. government agencies.
"We need to continue to transform how we do business," said CBP Acting Commissioner, Thomas S. Winkowski. "This is what we are accomplishing together in COAC--finding new and better ways to do business that can reduce costs for the trade community and the government. Automation, mobile technology, and trusted trader and traveler programs are absolutely critical as we continue down the road of business transformation."
Hosted at the U.S. International Trade Commission, key themes of the meeting included utilizing new technologies to build automated trade processes and expanding collaboration with other government agencies and the international trade community to make trade more efficient. Important subcommittee topics also included the expansion of 'Trusted Trader' programs through the development of industry standards and trusted trader metrics; as well as trade enforcement and revenue collection.
Also during the meeting Department of the Treasury, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Tax, Trade, and Tariff Policy Tim Skud signified the importance of increasing interagency coordination and building the International Trade Data System (ITDS). ITDS promotes the concept of "One Government at the Border" by electronically processing trade data through a 'single window,' thereby lessening the need for separate federal government systems.
CBP is proud to work with its COAC partners at the forefront of these efforts to collaboratively address challenges and implement programs that will continue facilitating secure international trade flows into the 21st century.