The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) is a program led by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
✅ In exchange for demonstrating a secure supply chain, participants enjoy many benefits, including a reduction in customs exams.
✅ It is voluntary and without application fee.
✅ Implementation and on-going compliance with its various provisions can be costly.
✅ However, it prompts positive bias from government regulators especially for manufacturers, importers, and logistics and should be considered as an investment into a company’s brand and reputation.
✅ There is a lack of awareness of the existence and benefits of CTPAT.
These were some of the highlights of the lively discussion held at the occasion of EACC Florida’s 3rd meeting of its Task Force Transportation, Logistics & Customs.
Hosted by Pernod Ricard in their lovely Blue Lagoon offices, the conversation was facilitated by Shawn Harwood, Trade Investigations Specialist at Squire Patton Boggs. After 90 minutes of lively exchanges and contributions, separate conversations continued over a delicious lunch sponsored by RAF Solutions and a glass of good red or white wine offered by the House.
The mission of this Task Force is to bring together active professionals who understand the benefits of sharing best practices across industries, ensuring that there is no silo thinking: it was certainly “mission accomplished” for this meeting!
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Why a dedicated Task Force?
With the second-largest foreign trade zone network in the U.S., Florida is home to 11,500+ logistics and distribution establishments. The broader wholesale trade, transportation, and logistics industry accounts for over 67,000+ establishments and employs more than half a million individuals across the state. Evolving geopolitics, recurring supply chain disruptions, the “greening” of the industry and increasing regulatory requirements are impacting global trade and it is expected that trade will become less global and more regionalized with a renewed focus on the Transatlantic Corridor – North America, Latin America and Europe.
While there are a number of entities and professional groups – federal, State and local – that serve these industries and their professionals to advance their interests, few if any have a transatlantic focus or specifically serve European companies and professionals from these industries present in Florida. And whereas specific know-how and expertise represent a competitive advantage for any company, the issues confronted by the sector are the same for all.
EACC Florida’s Task Force is loosely inspired from a similar TF run by EACC Auvergne-Rhone-Alps: https://eacc-ra.com/task-forces/.
Mission: to bring together active professionals who understand the benefits of sharing best practices across industries, ensuring that there is no silo thinking.
Role: to organize meetings on a regular basis to address strategic issues, share findings and best practices and make mutual recommendations for improvement in a given sector of activity. Chatham House rules or any other confidentiality rule might be used to allow for open exchange during the meetings.
Task Force Members: representatives of EACC Florida Member companies with interests in the transportation/logistics industry invited to serve on the Task Force.
Who Can Attend? EACC Florida Members and invited guests including importers, exporters, custm brokers, carriers, consolidators or are otherwise involved in international trade. Groups are kept small to encourage open discussion and debate.
If you wish to receive further details about the Task Force, please contact Christina Sleszynska at [email protected]
Many thanks to our Task Force Members!
