UPS Seeks New NAFTA Language on Preclearance, US-Mexico Trucking and Express Industry Info Submission Requirements

UPS is working for the insertion of new NAFTA language providing for trilateral cargo preclearance, streamlined truck transportation between the U.S. and Mexico, and increased customs information submission requirements for Canadian and Mexican state-owned parcel services, UPS Senior Vice President for International Public Affairs and Strategy Amgad Shehata said Oct. 26. During a Cato Institute NAFTA event, Shehata called for a broad move away from paper-based customs procedures, noting that NAFTA parties are all single-window countries equipped for greater customs digitization.

Further, UPS competes with state-owned parcel services in Canada and Mexico that have more relaxed information submission requirements than UPS does for the U.S., he said. “If we’re sending pre-arrival data into the United States before the wheels are up in Canada or in Mexico, before we even depart those countries, we’re sending CBP everything that’s on that truck, or in that plane, so that they can go through and figure out the bad actors and the bad packages, and nail it before it even comes into the country,” Shehata said. “Unfortunately, our competitors who are state-owned enterprises that are owned by those governments are not playing by the same rules. So we say, in NAFTA, let’s get that corrected once and for all” through application of the same information submission requirements to those SOEs as are applied to UPS.

Along the U.S.-Mexico border, trucked goods coming from all over the U.S. supply chain “get unloaded, reloaded, unloaded, and reloaded again” before they can pass through Mexico, as opposed to trucked exports to Canada, which can “drive right through,” Shehata said. “It centers around joint liability of the goods, the use of brokers, who can broker at what border, how many brokers get a license. So we’re going to try to get that all cleared up.” Finally, UPS hopes to see updated cargo preclearance provisions in NAFTA, whereby goods can be cleared for entry into U.S. commerce before arrival, he said. Digitization and transparency have enabled preclearance, because “in the old days, you had a lot of paper-based processes that were not transparent across the supply chain.” Additionally, the Coalition of Service Industries is advocating for prohibition of customs duties on electronic transmissions in NAFTA, coalition President Christine Bliss said during the Cato event. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.