August 2009

Ever since the tragic events of 9/11, the sole focus of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been anti-terrorism.   This is true, despite the rhetoric in more recent years that U.S. Customs serves the equally vital goals of anti-terrorism and facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel.  The former priorities of collecting customs duties and fees, facilitating international trade, preventing illegal trade practices, and interdicting drugs and other contraband was shoved to the side in the name of protecting our homeland from terrorists.

Fortunately, the United States Congress, through the Senate Finance Committee led by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana), on August 6, 2009, introduced a bill entitled “The Customs Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Reauthorization Act of 2009.” Senator Baucus said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have not been focusing sufficient resources on their trade missions, “and this bill would direct them to do so.”

If the bill becomes law, and it should, because of both Democratic and Republic support,  it would refocus U.S. Customs on regulating international trade, a mission U.S. Customs has performed very well for over 200 years.   In summary, among other things, the law would:

1) Replace the Office of  Trade Relations with a new Trade Advocate, who would be the primary liaison between the public and U.S. Customs;

2) Create a Principal Deputy Commissioner, appointed by the President of the United States;

3) Consolidate the current Office of International Trade and the Office of International Affairs into a single Office of International Trade;

4) Make health and safety issues a top priority;

5) […]

Did you hear that Mexico replaced all 700 Customs Inspectors?  It did so because the Mexican Customs officers were considered corrupt, allowing undeclared merchandise (including drugs and weapons) to cross into and out of Mexico.  The replacement officers are allegedly specially trained to collect the tax revenues that the Mexican Government depends upon, and prevent undeclared merchandise from entering the country (i.e. smuggling).  Mexico depends upon collection of revenues by the Mexican Customs authorities much more than we do in the United States with the customs duties and fees collected by our U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers.  Most importantly, the new Mexican Customs officials are supposed to be specially selected and trained so they will not be susceptible to the same enticements that corrupted the former 700 Mexican Customs officials.  Mexican Government officials say not to worry about  the new Mexican Customs officials as over 70% of the new Mexican Customs officials are colleged educated, as opposed to just 10% for those who were fired.

Do you believe any of this nonsense?  This is not the first time that the Mexican Government has fired huge numbers of its Customs officials.  It happened before and it will likely happen again.  Mexican Customs officials need better salaries and better working conditions, not college degrees.

In contrast, if an international passenger or importer or exporter attempted to bribe a U.S. Customs officer, the chances are excellent that the U.S. Customs officer would promptly arrest or take other similar serious and immediate action.  That is not to say there […]