CBP Announces May 22 COAC Meeting and Agenda Items

The next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will be on May 22, 2012 at 1 p.m. (EST) in Savannah, Ga. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is seeking comment on the planned agenda items, according to a notice in the Federal Register May 4, 2012. Online registration for webcast and in-person attendance at the COAC meeting is open through May 18, 2012.

Registration for the webcast is available (here). Registration for in-person registration is (here).

The notice said COAC will hear from the following subcommittees on the topics listed below and then will review, deliberate, and formulate recommendations on how to proceed on those topics:

• The work of the Land Border Security Subcommittee: Recommendations on the expansion of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) Program and the National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security.
• The work of the Trade Facilitation Subcommittee: Recommendations on CBP’s Trade Transformation initiatives.
• The work of the One U.S. Government at the Border Subcommittee: Updates on subcommittee discussions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
• The work of the Role of the Broker subcommittee: Recommendation to continue educational webinars on current topics for the trade community.

Prior to the COAC taking action on any of these topics of the four above-mentioned subcommittees, members of the public will have an opportunity to provide comments orally or, for comments submitted electronically during the meeting, by reading the comments into the record.

The COAC will also receive an update and discuss the following Initiatives and Subcommittee topics that were discussed at its February 21, 2012 meeting:

• The National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security as it relates to the Committee’s effort to solicit, consolidate, and provide input to DHS sector and stakeholders on the implementation of the National Strategy.
• The Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and International Trade DataSystem (ITDS).
• The Air Cargo Security Subcommittee work on the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) pilot.
• The Bond Subcommittee work on proposed modifications to the CBP Form 5106; input on single transaction bond centralization; and liquidated damages mitigation guidelines.
• The Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Subcommittee work on the distribution chain management project.
• The Anti-Dumping/Countervailing Duties Subcommittee work on educational webinars for the trade community and feedback on CBP’s Draft 5-year Anti-Dumping/Countervailing Duties Enforcement Strategy.

Comments must be submitted in writing by May 14 through:

• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
• E-mail: Tradeevents@dhs.gov. Include the docket number in the subject line of the message.
• Fax: 202-325-4290