Industry-Wide Expansion of First Three CEEs Coming in 'Next 12 Months,' Says CBP Official

NEW YORK – CBP will expand the first three Centers of Excellence and Expertise to cover their entire industries “over the next twelve months,” said CBP New York Director of Field Operations Robert Perez on Nov. 5 at the U.S. Fashion Industry Association’s Trade and Transportation Conference. CBP will then use its experience expanding the first three CEEs – electronics in Los Angeles, pharmaceuticals in New York, and petroleum and minerals in Houston – to put itself in position to subsequently open the other seven CEEs to their entire industries. Former Acting Commissioner Thomas Winkowski first announced the expansion in March (see 14030613), but CBP officials had not yet provided a firm timeline (see 14061723 and 14091609).

Perez said the agency’s approach would be slow and steady. “We want to be aggressive, but we absolutely will be deliberate as well,” he said. “Because what we don’t want to do is get out too far, and then have to circle back, readdress and reengineer processes that we can otherwise hopefully sort out as we stand up these three centers to full capacity, and then slowly begin to do the same with the remaining seven.” CBP isn’t shooting for perfection, which could result in slowdowns, said Perez. But it does want to “deliver on the expectation of what these centers do,” he said.

CBP’s trade transformation initiatives, of which the CEEs are one, have played a major role in the agency’s success in getting funding from Congress for new officers, said Perez. Congress appropriated CBP funds for an additional 2,000 officers in fiscal year 2014 (see 14011423), and another 1,000 in FY 2015 (see 14062701). A big part of the agency’s case to appropriators was a study by the University of Southern California’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events that found every new CBP officer generates about $2 million in gross domestic product, said Perez. By more efficiently enabling and moving trade and travel across the border, every officer also saved about $640,000 in costs, said the study, according to Perez. That all equates to about 33 extra jobs per new CBP officer, said Perez.