Bonner Acceptance Remarks at Joint Industry Group
Thank you, Ron. It is an honor to receive the Excellence in Government award. It means a lot to me to be recognized by a group as distinguished as the Joint Industry Group - a group that has dedicated time and energy to supporting Customs modernization as well as measures that heighten security and facilitate trade into the United States, through its support of programs like the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and the Automated Commercial Environment. So, let me say thank you for this award, and thank you for your strong support of ACE and C-TPAT, CSI, FAST, the 24-Hour Rule, Trade Act Rules and other Customs and Border Protection initiatives that add security, yet at the same time expedite the clearance & processing of imports.
As many of you know, on September 11th, I was in Washington, DC working at the Treasury Department as a "consultant" while awaiting my confirmation by the Senate as Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service. On that terrible day, I saw our economy bend under the strain of congested borders as the U.S. Customs Service went to its highest level of alert. On our land borders, for example, we saw waiting times for commercial trucks jump from 30 minutes in some locations to as long as 16 hours. Not surprisingly, these long waits wreaked havoc on our many segments of our economy, impeding just-in-time delivery schedules and manufacturing operations.
Why did we see these substantial economic impacts on September 11th and during the days that followed? Because we did not have a system in place to secure our borders while at the same time facilitating legitimate trade. As a result, since September 11th, I have been working to build such a system - a system that is not only more secure against terrorism, but that allows legitimate commerce to move into the United States even at times of heightened alert. We cannot attain greater national security at the cost of our economy.
We started building such a system while I was the Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service. In the year and a half that followed September 11th, we began to rapidly, and fundamentally, change the character of our borders. Among other things, we:
Increased the security of international supply chains by launching the most innovative and ambitious government-private sector partnership to come out of September 11th, the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism;
- Implemented the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program with Canada to speed the movement of secure truck shipments across our shared border;
- Tripled the amount of non-intrusive inspection equipment at our ports of entry to increase our inspection capacity and to speed the inspection process;
- Implemented the Container Security Initiative (CSI) to identify and inspect high-risk cargo overseas and to facilitate the movement of low-risk cargo upon arrival in the United States;and
- Promulgated the so-called "24-hour" rule to ensure that the U.S. Customs Service had the data it needed to support CSI and to improve our ability to identify high-risk cargo.
On March 1, 2003, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security, and as the successor agency to the U.S. Customs Service. To create CBP, we took most of the U.S. Customs Service and merged it with the immigration inspectors and the Border Patrol from the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the agriculture border inspectors from the Department of Agriculture. For the first time in our country's history, all agencies of the United States government with significant border responsibilities have been unified into one agency. We have created one agency to secure and manage our nation's borders.
And let me assure you, the creation of this new agency bodes well for the international trade community. By consolidating border functions, CBP will be better able to facilitate legitimate trade. For example, instead of several agencies screening and inspecting shipments sequentially, there will be just one agency screening and inspecting cargo. In many cases, we will be able to offer one hold and one release. We will also have greater staffing flexibility, which means that we will be able to make border operations more efficient and more predictable. And in the fast-paced world of global commerce, this is vital to the bottom line.
But we are not waiting to complete our merger at CBP to make further gains in securing our borders and facilitating legitimate trade. Indeed, one of things that I am most proud of as Commissioner of CBP is that we have been able to undertake a successful merger while at the same time continuing to improve and launch smart border initiatives. This is a testament to the hard work and talent of the senior managers at CBP, and the seriousness with which the Agency views its primary mission of preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States, while at the same time facilitating legitimate trade and travel.
Over the last year, CBP has, among other things:
Expanded participation in C-TPAT to more than 5,000 companies, started the process of validating C-TPAT members to ensure that they honor their commitments to substantially increase supply chain security, and worked with several C-TPAT importers to use smarter, more secure containers in their shipments to the United States;
Implemented CSI at 18 overseas seaports;
Successfully implemented the "24-hour" rule;
Promulgated regulations requiring the advance transmission of electronic data for virtually all cargo shipments into the United States;
Partnered with the Food and Drug Administration to implement the Bioterrorism Act in a way that increased security through joint risk management and did not unduly impede trade; and
Implemented the FAST program on the Southern Border;
And our work at CBP, and the work of those in this room, is far from done. As Secretary Ridge would say, we have an obligation to continue to work together to "close our borders to terrorists and open them to legitimate trade and travel." To that end, I expect to be working closely with the international trade community over the coming year to ensure that we meet this objective.
We must ensure that the C-TPAT program is a success. This means that C-TPAT participants must honor their commitments to CBP, and that the smarter container must make the transition from novelty item to industry best practice. This is the only way that we will be able to offer a true "green lane" for secure trade into the United States. And, equally importantly, CBP must honor its commitments to the trade. We must do our part to make sure that C-TPAT members receive the benefits we have promised.
We must ensure that the Trade Act regulations are successfully implemented in a way that is designed to increase security, but at the same time accounts for the changes to business practices that many members of the international trade community will need to make in order to be compliant.
And, we must ensure that the data collection and risk-management systems and programs utilized by CBP and the FDA are as integrated as possible, so that we maintain a secure, seamless, and efficient border.
Let me conclude by echoing some remarks I made at our last Trade Symposium:
Although the last few years have witnessed unparalleled change in the way we secure and manage our borders, our relationship with the trade has remained constant. There is a strong relationship between U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as the successor agency to the U.S. Customs Service, and the trade community. We all believe in a smarter border. And whether we always agree on precisely how to get there, we respect one another, we listen, and we keep the dialogue open. This is important to me, and it is important to the agency. This is the kind of relationship that will lead us to success, no matter the challenge. Indeed, it has led to C-TPAT, the most successful government-private sector partnership to arise out of the ashes of September 11th, and it has led to the successful implementation of the "24-hour" rule, a regulation that many predicted would cripple the movement of commerce into the U.S.
Thank you for your support of CBP and our smart border initiatives. We know that you have made substantial investments and changed many of your business practices over the last few years. I can assure you that those investments have been worth it. We are now far more secure than we were on September 11th, and we are well on our way to fully implementing smart border programs that we can all have confidence in, programs that will allow us to process legitimate trade even under the highest alert levels.
Thanks to your help, ACE is in a pivotal year where Release 3 becomes operational and account processing becomes a reality. This fundamentally improves the way CBP does business with the trade community.
This award is a testament to the hard work and talent of many at U.S. Customs, now Customs and Border Protection, for reaching out to the private sector for ideas for improving the efficiency of supply chains, for developing and implementing initiatives needed in the post 9/11 environment, but that recognizes that heightened security and facilitation are not - don't have to be - mutually exclusive goals.
They are - and continue to be - our twin goals at Customs and Border Protection and of the Department of Homeland Security. They are what smarter and extended borders are all about.
I look forward to continuing to this work with the trade, and I thank you again for the award.