Trade Members Outline 'Master Principles' for Export Regulation at COAC Meeting

Members of the trade community unveiled a new set of “master principles” for government regulation of exports at the Feb. 20 meeting of the CBP Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations (COAC). The “Master Principles for a One U.S. Government at the Border Cooperation for Exports,” developed by the COAC export subcommittee, envisions increased cooperation between the government and the trade and between the government agencies themselves. It also urges streamlined processes for exporters like a single window and a single government point of contact to address concerns related to all government agency requirements.

“The trade intent was really to provide those foundational principles that are required to position the U.S. to manage the strategic cross border issues,” said COAC Export Subcommittee member Julie Parks as she introduced the master principles document. The subcommittee is looking at “doing it in such a manner that overall we can reduce the cost of doing business and protect the economic security of the United States,” said Parks. “The goal of the document, and it’s really embodied in the executive order, is to promote interagency cooperation that builds trust across [CBP], the partnering government agencies, and the U.S. trade community,” she said. "We also want to execute on those strategies associated with the national export initiative and export control reform." Parks outlined the four main areas of the master principles document as follows:

Government partnership and trade input. Under the COAC principles, U.S. government agencies involved in the export process should work together and gather and address concerns from the trade.

Interagency cooperation. Agencies should continue to focus on strengthening partnerships, sharing information, and exchanging data, said the report. CBP can play a coordinating role.

Information sharing. The government should automate processes to promote government data sharing, reduce inconsistencies, and increase efficiency and transparency, said COAC. Low-risk exports should be able to provide business information in advance to prove their low risk, but any required advance data requirements should have benefits that outweigh their costs.

Account based. The government should establish individual export accounts between exporters and an assigned government account manager, said COAC. That should promote compliance, efficiency, risk mitigation, and bi-directional education, it said.

Partnership programs. The government should use more voluntary partnership programs with industry, the report said. Agencies should coordinate their requirements under the programs, as well as their reviews of program participants. Suspension or removal should be based on a set of risk-based standards that includes an appeals process, it said.

Mutual accountability. The government and the trade should work closely together to operate with more transparency in order to achieve goals, said the report.

Trade. Under the COAC export principles, members of the trade should be responsible for keeping their government account managers up to date on industry practices, and in return CBP and other agencies should give the trade authorized status, said COAC.

Government and trade. The government and the trade should work together to establish guidelines, understand threats, and improve industry practices. This should occur both on government-industry advisory committees and through reviews of the outcomes from partnership programs.

Government. The government should provide a central point of contact for exporters. Clear guidelines should be established, and these guidelines as well as any concerns should be communicated through the government’s central point of contact.

Consultation, cooperation, and communication. COAC says channels of cooperation should remain open between both between government and business and within the government on issues of mutual interest like supply chain security and trade facilitation.

Single window. A single window should be created for “unified targeting, coordinated release, and a single correction point for all agencies,” said COAC. The goal should be to release goods quickly with the lowest cost. The system should be accessible by all export agencies, and should contain all data required from exporters by those agencies.

CBP Officials Praise Export Principles

Both Todd Hoffman, CBP director-cargo and conveyance, and Brenda Smith, CBP director-ACE business office, voiced their approval of the export subcommittee’s principles document at the COAC meeting. “I think it serves as a great framework as we continue to work with COAC and partner government agencies as we modernize the export process,” said Hoffman. The export principles already align with some of CBP’s current work, said Smith. “From the ACE perspective, we are excited that some of the principles contained in the master principles document are already reflected in the modernization we’re doing on the export side,” she said. “We have the deployment of the reengineered Automated Export System (AES) in late March,” said Smith. “That should be transparent to the trade. But what will be apparent going forward is the flexibility we have to make changes in the automated environment to support the principles of the document.”