Seattle, San Francisco Recommended for Textile CEE
The CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC) recommended Seattle and San Francisco as possible sites for the coming Center for Excellence and Expertise on Apparel, Footwear, and Textile. CBP sought input from COAC and industry working groups on where to locate the CEEs. According to an industry executive involved in the process, the working groups submitted their reports to CBP Aug. 21 and CBP is expected to make its final decisions on the locations by Oct. 1.
(There are currently two CEEs, one for Electronics in Long Beach, Calif., and one for Pharmaceuticals in New York City. CBP announced plans for two more CEEs, an Automotive and Aerospace center in Detroit and a Petroleum, Natural Gas and Minerals center in Houston, on May 10, but locations of five others scheduled to be completed by the end of FY 2013 are yet to be finalized.)
The other CEEs that CBP has yet to decide on locations are:
- Agriculture and Prepared Products
- Base Metals and Machinery
- Consumer Products
- Industrial & Manufacturing Materials
- Textiles, Wearing Apparel & Footwear
CBP will have a difficult road ahead in deciding the future locations, said the executive. "The challenge for CBP will be to place CEEs in locations that are logical, well supported and representative to the industries," he said. "This presents them with balancing what might look like an even distribution with the potential that several CEEs might argue to be co-located. Ports like New York, LA and Miami would logically come up on any list. CBP would like a map that 'looks like America' rather than clusters on the coasts."
(According to CBP, the CEEs will expand efforts to increase uniformity of practices across ports of entry, facilitate the timely resolution of trade compliance issues nationwide, and further strengthen critical agency knowledge on key industry practices. The CEEs bring all of CBP's trade expertise to bear on a single industry in a strategic location and serve as resources to the broader trade community and to CBP’s U.S. government partners.)