IOR Identity Theft Monitoring, AQUA Lane Access Among CTPAT Benefits Under Development, McAleenan Says

CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan highlighted some planned additional benefits to participation in the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism program, in prepared remarks for the July 18 Senate Finance International Trade Subcommittee hearing on U.S. ports and trade. The ongoing transitioning of the Importer Self-Assessment program into CTPAT Trade Compliance "includes the extensive development of new benefits," he said. CBP has a loose deadline of the end of 2018 for transitioning ISA participants into CTPAT (see 1709070010), and a phased rollout of new CTPAT standards is expected to begin in October (see 1806070058).

The new benefits will include use of Advanced Qualified Unlading Approval (AQUA) lanes, he said. CBP pilot programs on the use of AQUA, which allows some carriers to unlade cargo before meeting with CBP, are now up to 20 seaports (see 1609210036), he said. There were almost 10,000 AQUA requests in fiscal year 2018, 80 percent of which were approved by CBP, McAleenan said. "Other benefits under development include Importer of Record identity theft monitoring, known as CTPAT Defender," he said. "CTPAT Defender will provide a level of protection for our trusted partners."

There have been 20 Enforce and Protect Act investigations into antidumping and countervailing duty evasion, with nine completed and $50 million in evasion prevention, McAleenan said. Asked about timing for final EAPA regulations, McAleenan said that will depend on the lessons learned from the finished and ongoing EAPA investigations. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said that better trade enforcement may have prevented some of the ongoing tariffs turmoil. "Frankly, I don't know that we would need to have a 232 case and have all of the potentially negative consequences that come from that if we were doing a better job on transshipment," Portman said.

McAleenan also discussed an open question (see 1707110020) on the need for administrative protective orders (APOs), which would allow for sharing of confidential information, within EAPA. Portman complained that the lack of APOs may be limiting the number of EAPA submissions. The APO process "is something we've looked at" and are willing to continue to discuss, but "we don't have the authority or the resources to implement it today," he said. Confidential sharing under an APO would be helpful, as would allowing petitioners to file allegations when the specific importer is not known, McAleenan said. The lack of APOs was a complaint of many commenters on the interim regulations (see 1612270018).

McAleenan also mentioned in his prepared remarks the recent boost in ACE funding. The additional $30 million will be used to "enable further streamlining of aspects for the trade process for both industry and government and also strengthen trade security," he said. "For example, system enhancements to enable de minimis functionality will provide CBP access to previously unavailable admissibility data for low value shipments, resulting in improved cargo processing and use of enforcement resources."