Both the US Customs and Border Protection and its northern counterpart, the Canadian Border Services Agency, are continuing efforts to implement an advanced cargo release program to speed cross-border rail and truck shipments. According to American Shipper, the agencies hope to implement a pilot program, “in the near future,” for pre-clearance of truck shipments at the Buffalo, NY and Fort Erie, ON border crossing.
US officials expect the scope of the program to be limited to “low-risk trading companies” enrolled in US Customs’ C-TPAT program and Canada’s analogous Partners in Protection program.
As American Shipper reported,
Pre-clearance could be set up in many different ways, but essentially would involve checking shipments for trade compliance, safety and security at designated inland facilities or even a commercial distribution center and incorporating safeguards to ensure the cargo was transported without tampering directly to a pre-determined border crossing.
Although meetings have been scheduled between the two agencies to discuss the details of cargo pre-clearance, no official target date for launch of the pilot program have yet been announced.
Canada is the United States’ largest trading partner.
The American Shipper article, “U.S., Canada renew cargo pre-clearance efforts,” is available here. (site registration required for access to entire article).
