Is C-TPAT necessary for my business’s viability?
9th January 20083 Comments
The United States’ Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) security program will soon enter its fifth year.
Introduced by the Customs Border & Protection Agency (CBP) in 2002 as a result of 9/11, the program is a voluntary trade security initiative that partners the import community with CBP in an effort to secure the global supply chain. Its main objective is to encourage supply chain security practices among U.S. importers thereby resulting in a more secure U.S. border. C-TPAT is the largest partnership ever introduced between industry and government.
In addition, C-TPAT is going to become even more important with the strategic framework for Import Safety that was recently released by The President. The Import Safety model will include a voluntary (in most instances) security certification process that will probably be integrated into the C-TPAT certification program. As this program becomes formalized, all types and sizes of importers are asking themselves — is C-TPAT necessary for my business’s viability? The quick answer — probably yes
18th January 2008 at 4:02 am
Even if an importer can’t justify the benefits against the costs of administering the program it’s definitely looking more and more risky to forgo participation as C-TPAT membership is, in many cases, becoming the basis for qualifying supply chain participants as secure and safe to import into the country.
6th February 2008 at 11:46 pm
I may be the contrarian, but I could have been that little boy that declared the emperor wasn’t wearing any clothes.
CBP keeps raising the bar for getting in, and staying in, but it is my opinion that no one has really seen any of the promised benefits. Yes, that University of Virginia study showed importers claiming benefits, but were these actually measured? Or were these importers just repeating what they’ve been spoon-fed by CBP?
As for reduced cargo exams, somewhere I saw fine print that said C-TPAT members would see a reduction in security related exams, not total exams. Suppose, for a hypothetical importer, that security related exams represent 5% of their total exams. Let’s further suppose that their C-TPAT membership gets them a 10% reduction in security related exams. 10% of 5% is only a 0.5% reduction in total exams. Furthermore, CBP tells us that to receive “full” C-TPAT benefits, a C-TPAT importer must use C-TPAT partners and file their entry 24 hours in advance. How often does all that happen?
As for expedited clearances, up on the northern border, the FAST lane up the road from me is only a quarter of a mile long, but the normal daily back-up of trucks is four miles. On September 12, 2001, when the border was closed, the line of trucks backed up some 35 kilometers into Canada. How can those C-TPAT truckloads even get close enough to receive their privileged expedited clearances?
As for ships on the water, if we ever close the borders again, presumably ships with non-C-TPAT cargo would be kept out of our ports. How do they off-load the C-TPAT containers 200 miles out in international waters? Divert the vessel to Canada so the containers can be trucked to the US? With that already 30 kilometer backup mentioned above?
And with the recent announcement of the 10+2 additional data elements for the 24 hour rule, CBP has stated that C-TPAT members will not be granted any exemptions.
In my company, nearly every request for proposal we receive includes a question about C-TPAT. Do they ask because my C-TPAT membership is a requirement to get their business? No, they only ask because their C-TPAT membership requires them to ask. But it doesn’t require them to only accept C-TPAT partners. I maintain that, at the end of the day, business decisions continue to be based on service and price, and C-TPAT goes right out the window.
7th April 2008 at 2:48 pm
Your comments are well taken–I would only add that an importer would receive zetro C-TPAT benefits if imporrting in less than full container loads and the other(s) shipping in the same container are not in the program.
Yet the preveption is strong that being a member is the opnly way to remain competitive. When the Wal-Marts of this world ask, it is often taken as a command. And yet some of my clients who suplly the big chain retailers are not in the program and seem to have litle inclination to join. Go figure.