US Aiding Customs Agencies in Northern Triangle Region to Improve Trade, CBP Official Says

CHICAGO -- CBP has partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development to improve customs agencies in the Northern Triangle countries of Central America, hoping improvements will lead to more trade within the region and with the U.S., CBP’s Assistant Commissioner for the Office of International Affairs Ian Saunders said, speaking at the agency’s Trade Symposium in Chicago on July 23.

Saunders said the project, which began in March, is focused on the “procedural reform” of the customs agencies in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The U.S. is hoping to help the agencies establish better enforcement while also improving their customs facilities, which Saunders said are “marginally inhabitable.” The U.S. plans to help build “dormitories” on the El Salvador-Guatemala border, Saunders said.

“They’re working with very modest facilities. And modest is a kind way of describing some of what you would see,” Saunders said. “The customs officials don’t have the facilities to maintain themselves and focus on their work.”

CBP has been speaking with the countries to understand what they need most, Saunders said. “They need very basic things to improve facilities and to create a work environment that allows officers to do more of what we expect them to do,” Saunders said. The U.S. plans to inspect the facilities and the customs agencies in the near future to “allow us to level set expectations” and potentially increase trade. Saunders said CBP hopes this leads to “better enforcement, better revenue collection and better facilitation based on infrastructure.”

“We’re looking at taking those ingredients to add into the mix of the region so that the environment is friendlier for those that trade intraregionally, but also with the United States,” Saunders said.