WASHING TON: United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, has woken up to the same issue that many in the air freight and express industry woke up to several years ago: e-commerce has gone cross-border. That is, instead of imports to the US consisting mostly of big shipments brought in by big companies, there is an increasing volume small shipments all the way down to single packages being brought in by individuals
All of which sounds great, in a motherhood-and-apple-pie way, but could mean just about anything. After reading the official 10-page strategy document (it’s available here), our sense is that what CBP is aiming for is modeled on a combination of something similar to the TSA’s “Known Shipper” program, a requirement for advance sharing of shipment data, and stiffer penalties for non-compliance.
While some of this is possible through hard work at the CBP itself (data analysis that flags certain shipments as potentially non-compliant, for example), much of it is dependent on cooperation from non US governments and businesses.
Cross-border e-commerce is not going to go away. Nor will it shrink. And CBP is correct in its perception that “e-Commerce shipments pose the same health, safety, and economic security risks as containerized shipments.” So, clearly, there is a need for a new strategy – and not just in the US, but everywhere. Equally clearly, CBP recognizes the need to work with the rest of the world.
