Ottawa, Canada – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has concluded a week-long joint “table top exercise” on handling import safety issues through multi-agency collaboration with Canada.
The joint Table Top Exercise (TTX) included officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and Health Canada. The exercise focused on critical incidents involving imported products that were found to be dangerous, hazardous and volatile, and helped both countries understand how the other would respond.
The exercise gave each participating agency a chance to present potential scenarios of import safety events that would have hazardous effects on the public. As scenarios were presented, each agency provided feedback to their respective counterparts. Those recommendations will be used to better protect U.S. and Canadian consumers.
“This is an opportunity for Canadian and U.S. border enforcement and import safety agencies to exchange ideas and develop best practices for working together to address import safety issues,” said Brenda Smith, Assistant Commissioner for CBP’s Office of International Trade. “This exercise not only displayed the benefit of joint agency collaboration, but also served as an opportunity to learn from our international colleagues.”
“For years, CPSC has enjoyed a close and productive working relationship with our sister agency, CBP. CPSC and CBP are also collaborating with our international partners, and together we are working to increase mission effectiveness, while securing the borders from dangerous imported products. Our meeting with Health Canada, CBSA, and CBP provided an excellent opportunity to better understand how we may be able to work more closely to better protect consumers in both Canada and the U.S.”, added Carol Cave, Director, CPSC’s Office of Import Surveillance.