In an effort to keep you up to date on new regulations and import conditions that are developing, we will be sending out a series of e-mails and posting notices here on our website, over the next several months.  We encourage you to read these notices in their entirety, as many import regulations and procedures will be changing throughout the year.

It has come to our attention that some of our competitors in the Customs Brokerage and Freight Forwarding industry have been sending out informational bulletins warning of the potential for long shutdowns of border crossings as a result of the U.S. – Iraq conflict or the possibility of future terrorist attacks and offering "new" services to protect your business against these shutdowns.  We want to take this opportunity to offer you our opinion on this issue. While we agree that the potential for significant delays does exist, we do not subscribe to using fear tactics to derive new revenue from our clients. At Great Lakes we advise our clients based on the facts, not the “what-ifs.” The following is our view of the situation.

The facts are, since 9/11 there have been multiple occasions where the national threat level in the U.S. has been increased to Alert Level Orange (High Condition of Terrorist Attack). Although this alert level calls for the U.S. Customs Service to increase border security activities at all of the nation’s ports of entry, including increased examinations, Customs has accomplished this without significant increases in wait times at the border. Additionally, Customs has developed and implemented several new programs and initiatives designed to increase protections through supply chain security while maintaining the free flow of goods across the U.S. – Canada border with minimal disruption to our economies. Some of these programs have already been implemented such as Operation Liberty Shield, Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and Free and Secure Trade (FAST), while others are currently in development including Advanced Manifest filing for border truck traffic (Truck-AMS) and proposed rules for FDA's Bio-Terrorism Act. Customs has also added a record number of inspectors and other personnel to handle increased screenings at the border in order to keep delays to a minimum. In meetings with Trade Groups, Customs continually expresses that these programs and initiatives are being implemented so the gridlock experienced immediately after 9/11 won't happen again.  In our opinion, they have been very proactive in their approach to dealing with the multiple challenges of securing the longest unguarded border in the world in ways that won’t impair the movement of legitimate trade. Although we have certainly experienced some delays as well as increases in formal post-audit requests for information, under the circumstances they have not been unreasonable.

Although it is inevitable that the new security measures will ultimately increase costs to some extent, it is our belief that in most cases existing business processes will not require major overhauls. We strongly recommend that you participate in all new Customs programs that are applicable to your situation, especially C-TPAT. Customs has advised that industry partners who agree to comply with the long and solid checklist of security precautions in these programs can count on the agency to do their part to keep their cargo moving. We believe that compliance with these programs will allow most goods to move through the system in a timeframe similar to that which exists now, and in certain cases actually improve it.

We would be interested to see any advertisements sent to you by our competitors utilizing such fear tactics.  Please contact your customer service team if you have any further concerns or questions regarding any of the above mentioned programs. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you.