CBP Officials Discuss Upcoming " Account Based Processing " Projects
During the February 25, 2010 Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC) meeting, a CBP official and COAC's Trade Facilitation Subcommittee provided an update on account management (also known as management by account and account based processing).
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(In May 2009, COAC submitted to CBP a white paper advocating broad new "Account Based Processing" concept that would encompass trade compliance, informed compliance, security, intellectual property rights, import product safety, and information technology. According to COAC, ABP could benefit CBP and the trade community in numerous ways, including (i) reduced processing times; (ii) additional monetary "float;" (iii) green lane treatment; and (iv) uniformity.)
Work on Specific ABP Projects to Begin After Value/Metrics Work Completed
A CBP official noted CBP and COAC still have a small amount of work to do in the area of values and metrics. (CBP and COAC have been working on identifying ways to help CBP understand how the trade would measure success if ABP changes are implemented.)
After work on value and metrics is completed, CBP and COAC will move on to a discussion of the individual ABP projects under consideration (e.g., challenges, benefits, costs, etc.) That work is preparation for building a business model for piloting some of the priority projects.
(CBP has previously stated that it has identified approximately 20 possible ABP projects in 4 categories: (i) commercial account processing; (ii) security account processing; (iii) information technology; and (iv) interagency interaction.)
"Maintenance" FY 2011 Budget Request Could Impact Piloting of ABP Projects
One COAC Trade Facilitation Subcommittee member noted that the fiscal year 2011 budget request for CBP automation modernization provides only for Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) maintenance, and not for ACE development. This member expressed concern that this could adversely affect the piloting of ABP projects as there may not be funding for a project's programming, etc.
CBP Already Has Business Model for 1 ABP Project - Centers of Expertise
Another COAC member noted that interest has been expressed in having "centers of expertise" as one of the ABP projects piloted. (One of COAC's recommendations in its white paper was the establishment of "centers of expertise" for specific industry sectors at certain ports. The goal would be to achieve more industry commodity expertise, greater uniformity of treatment of specific product categories, and promote informed compliance.)
This member suggested that CBP's five drawback centers and 13-16 reconciliation ports are business "models" for the "centers of expertise" concept. It was further noted by COAC members that the trade already incorporates the "centers of expertise" concept in its operations and CBP should operate in the same way.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 11/18/09, 09/09/09 and 05/26/09 news, 09111810, 09090905, and 09052605, for BP summaries of the CBP-COAC discussion of ABP at the November, August, and May 2009 COAC meetings.)