Up next here on cspan 3 a discussion from the Woodrow Wilson center on trade, Border Security and other issues along the u. S. mexico border. This lasts about an hour. All right, were going to get started here. Over the next i would say most important part of the day. Thank you all. Im the chair of the Border Trade Alliance and my day job is Vice President of the San Diego Regional Chamber of commerce. I have to start by saying this is my favorite conference each year. You know, whether youre new to the conversation on the u. S. mexico relationship and the border or youre an expert, the pan lists and the speakers provide thought provoking comments. Al and this panel is no exception. Were really pleased to hear and have them here. Ill run through and introduce them, but to kind of frame the conversation, you know, these panelists they have lived and breathed and in a couple cases run the border the Border Management ports of entry. So well cover a variety of factors that Border Management entails which is very complicated operation. We have to ensure security and at the same time facilitate trade and travel and do this across the 2,000 mile border. With that that entails two countries. Their respective local and state governments. Politics, the private sector. Good thing that funding is unlimited. Our speakers will talk that was a joke, we know that. We have no money. Our speakers will talk about physical border infrastructure, staffing, implementation of programs such as were mentioned previously. The united cargo processing, joint inspections. Perhaps we can talk about southbound inspections as well. What does the 21st century Border Management look like, new technology, additional ports of entry as the ambassador mentioned theyre widely inadequate and need updated and modernization. Then of course talking about naftas replacement. The usmca and in particular the trade facilitation chapter, the customs chapter, what does it mean for Border Management . And improving efficiencies at the border. So im excited to hear what each of you have to say. Lets get started. We have with us with more than 25 years of experience in banking, startups and media companies. Gustavo is on the National Organization based on in san diego. Hes a cofounder of a commercial Real Estate Company in sonora, also on the board of the king Stone Financial partners and a Nonprofit Foundation of choice for u. S. Donors who are passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in baja, california, and latin america. Joining us to his left is he served for seven years as technical secretary of the Foreign Relations commission in the senate of the republic of mexico and he served as the ministry of finance and public credit for two years. Since 2015, he has been part of the Tax Administration service as coordinator of advisers, general Customs Administration and central administrator of customs planning and International Affairs serving as the minister representative in washington, d. C. Thank you for joining us. Most notably though, ill say he received the chambers cross border Collaboration Award last year on behalf of where we honored them for their working partnership so i added that to his resume. We have the cofounder of the Ct Strategies which provides services to those seeking current and innovative insight into Border Management and supply Chain Management around the world. He previously served as assistant commissioner for International Trade at the u. S. Customs and border protection. He oversaw workforce of over 1,000 employees and a a budget of over 300 million and he was responsible for leading the most extensive trade Transformation Initiative in history. Throughout his 30plus year career at cbpn, he has been a pioneer and a leader developing broad and far reaching national and International Programs to support antiterrorism and trade transformation policies. Mr. Meyer joined Kansas City Southern in 2006 as executive vice and chief Financial Officer in 2008. He was named executive Vice President of sales and marketing named and marketing. Named president and chief executive officer since 2016. He has a broad range of experience from various Senior Executive positions. He has held at kcs over the last ten years and served as the chief Financial Officer and a corporate Vice President and treasurer of dade bearings Holdings Incorporated and served as Vice President of Burlington Northern santa fe corporation. Thank you so much for joining us the four of you. So well start with opening questions here. Just kind of broad questions t but, you know, if you can give an overview. But in particular, for each of you, ill provide a focus. Alan, if you could start us off from your history and your prior work at cbp if you can talk about the evolution of the cbp and the relationship and that history. Absolutely. Its a pleasure to be here. I want to thank the Wilson Center for this opportunity. Relative to the question, you heard part of my resume, its in the thing. Its in the material, but i wore a uniform for 15 years in the field at several locations. I came to headquarters, only wanted to spend five years here. 9 11 happened, unfortunately i became a headquarters lifer so i was able to serve at the pleasure of great cbp leadership. So i was there right after 9 11 so relative to my background what was the cooperation, it was over the top fabulous. They have always been great partners. You have to put this in perspective. 60,000 employees at cbp currently, 59,995 of them are Career Personnel and your leadership at cbp has a long established evolving relationship with their partners in sat. I was telling somebody earlier, ill tell you how strong it was. Theres an individual an esteemed individual who recently retired from sat. He was here is stationed in washington, d. C. Most of you already know who im talking about. Mr. Martin. I constantly reminded him after being in country for 24 straight years his children are more american than my child. And that relationship has always been strong. It continues to be strong. And to close, youll notice the previous secretary would talk about the relationship with her counterparts. The acting secretary at this point always talks about his relationship. Go on any kind of youtube or whatever query, robert perez the current career Deputy Commissioner and hes always talking about a wonderful relationship. So regardless now that aim retired i guess i can say it, regardless of what the rhetoric is out of the white house, the relationship at the Agency Department level is fabulous. Thank you. I think thats critical to note because without that cooperation, we dont have Border Management on either side. You cant run it just one sided. You know, if you could from the mexican perspective, and currently at sat, cbps counterpart, your work that youre doing today. Thank you. Thank you. Its great for me to be here and to share this. And thank you to all of the center and to the alliance for this opportunity. I think i mean, i will echo what alan just said. I think that sat and cbp relationship is at its best. Honestly, i dont think its been better. I think and the thing is that in im sorry, im not a politician. But we spend our days we dont spend our days thinking on how to keep our jobs. We spend our days doing the job. So we dont need to so we really take care of the day to day basis. So we are we are building a great partnership. I mean, alan said it very well. My predecessor, he was here for 24 years. Then he helped in that. We are keeping that up. And i think that these this has a processing product that you have heard about. And the best thing theyre creating of course i mean, theyre doing a lot of good for the business community. For the stakeholders. Reducing the times, the border wait times from three hours to 45 minutes or even in some ports of entry down to 15 minutes. Yes, thats great. But what these pilots are doing theyre creating or Building Trust between both organizations. Theyre Building Trust within both customs officers. Up and with this and with trust comes a great partnership. I totally agree we are doing great and well continue to do so. Could we have accomplished unified cargo processing without that partnership . I think probably not. You know, i think thats one of the most recent examples and proof of that partnership. Can i respond to that . Because many people may not know the significance of what had to be in the partnership. If you go back and look at preclearance, true preclearance, not prescreening or where youre reviewing and like a program csi, Container Security initiative and youre ensuring that things are safe before you get on the vessel. Actual clearance has been in the air environment. People say why is it in the air environment . Because the common thinking is once that aircraft leaves and its airborne, its not going to get compromised. So to think about why for so long theres never been true preclearance of cargo especially with between u. S. And mexico, u. S. And canada is because where you do that clearance, there has to be an extremely high level of confidence that that conveyance is not going to be compromised while its still on the ground. Therefore, completely undermining the preclearance. So that requires a cooperation and a trust in both parties to actually go from preclearance of air environment to preclearance of land environment. Thank you. You know, i think its really important to review that history and the current relationship so that we can figure out how to improve efficiencies at the border. Where we go for the future to go achieve a truly 21st century border, efficient border, and from the private sector perspective, pat, if you could talk about the importance, why is this even important . What does it mean for trade . You know, on the ground . Just capacity and cost and efficiency and competitiveness. You know, we move a tremendous amount of ar go as the congressman mentioned, loreto, our major cross border gateway is the busiest cargo gateway across the entire border whether youre talking about trucks or trains, and there is limited capacity, and lots of room for growth. And part of my i call it my elevator speech. I spent a lot of time in washington promoting nafta, u. S. Mca, is to talk about the opportunities that the United States of america has to increase exports to mexico. Yes, we have a trade deficit with mexico. Some of that is not politically driven, but there are opportunities in front of us in the next three, five years and beyond, i believe, to significantly reduce that trade deficit and two of the Biggest Companies is our company is trying to build capacity to do that. Our Refined Petroleum products as mexican reform. It was not part of nafta, and then plastics as a result of all the petrochemical plants, processors and refineries. A lot of products go into auto parts and Water Bottles and everything that can be made out of those products. In order for the country to take advantage and really fully realize the opportunities for export growth in from the u. S. Into mexico, we have to improve the processes for moving cargo across the border. We cant do it by physical infrastructure. Its just too expensive. And some of the things that will, im sure, well talk about whether its inspections, or crews, again, the congressman mentioned the international crew. The way a train crosses the border is ridiculous. When we explain it, its like were in the 18th century. For those of us not familiar, what does it look like . The train goes to the middle of the bridge. T out at the worst possible, the narrowest possible bottle neck. Its a single line bridge and it stops. The crew gets off whether its northbound or southbound, walks back to its home, probably a mile or more. Im told the weather in loreto can be nasty. They walk back. The receiving crew gets on the bridge and takes the train across. Not only is that taking up an enormous amount. Thats 20 or 30 minutes. So think about how much capacity that is soaking up. Dead, just because that train stopped. Within 10 miles of that point, there are big rail yards on both sides of the border that you can get that train out of the way, ten miles out of the way. Safe, secure, its not blocking the grade crossings and interfering with First Responders and traffic in the communities. And do the work thats necessary. So if we can change the process, thats just one part of it. Inspections, customs, Everything Else is a contributing factor as well. Our modelling shows we could almost double the capacity at that bridge without spending how much money and how much time would it take to build a new international bridge . Without spending hundreds of millions or billions of dollars and taking five, ten years to or as the congressman suggested, building overpasses for i dont know how many, 20, 25 grade crossings . Thats another billion dollar project. So its processes that we need to focus onto improve the efficiency, and take advantage. These products i talked about, plastics and Refined Petroleum products, gasoline, diesel, they want to move by ram. Theres not sufficient truck capacity. Mayor, signs you want the trucks moving through your town . Theres not sufficient truck capacity to move those. Theres not pipeline capacity. They want to move by rail. In order for us to take advantage, we need to improve and modernize the processes for moving cargo across the bridge. Across the border. Thank you. And yeah, no. Please, i prefer at any time jump in. Lets make this the most interactive. This process that pat already explained, its crazy to have that. While at the same time in the same Border Crossing we are sharing in a maerlt of less than a second, were sharing the images that we are capturing on the not interest of equipments. We are using the technology and doing a great job doing joint inspections. Were sharing the images. We are both authorities doing the Risk Assessment at the same time, in microseconds. But at the same time you have this process. Its crazy to think about. I just if i can chime in here. This is important. What youre got is ma dernty, advancement on one side and reality on the ground. Thats really going on on the ground and preventing things from happening, the transactions from happening faster. So its a very important thing. Its a dichotomy we live in. Its contrast, and it happens in various areas. And sometimes on one the processing on one side of the border might move faster than the other. I know that thats even with unified cargo processing, still a remaining challenge. I think thats important to note. Most people dont understand theres several terms of art. You have to understand the magnitude. Generally if we go into government at post government life, theyll say we want you to help us create a regional initiative. Ill say well, youve actually maxed out on coordinated Border Management and cross border coordinated management. Words matter. Hopefully you caught that with my new york accent. All right . I said in the u. S. , this 47 agencies that have some degree of equity at the u. S. Border, so within the u. S. Someone would argue do you even have coordinated Border Management among your own u. S. Government agencies . That is distinctly different if you can accomplish that than having now cross border coordinated management to make sure that your port of entry thats open 8 00 to 5 00 on one side of the border, the other side is hopefully not open 4 00 to 12 00 at night. While you can move traffic one way, you cant move it both ways, and at least for north america, you could say thats your regional or trilateral arrangement. And thats extremely difficult and complex. Because if it wasnt complex, right after 9 11, a lot of thinking, i mean, i actually worked for some really intellectual commissioners. Those of you who know the resumes of john bonner and mr. Bersen. You know . Academics. Besides just like yale and road scholars i dont know how we ended up in footballs hall of fame. Im not sure if he slept or what he did, but the thinking is nirvana would be Perimeter Security. If you can harmonize all the various complex aspects between canada to the u. S. And mexico, you would create Perimeter Security and you would alleviate a lot of the challenges and congestions along the respective borders. But, you know, having said that, unfortunately thats not the case, and this panel is 21st century and were already one fifth of the way through 21st century, so if i could, im just going to give you two minutes which might, you know, allow mr. Ottensmeyer to tell you what theyre going in kansas city which shows you there are some activities that can be done to get return on investment. I said first, modern Custom Services or any Government Agencies have to be able to run their company live as kevin plank promotes, and were far from it. And what does that mean for me as a former 30year customs official . My responsibility to the United States is not only National Security but promoting economic competitiveness and prosperity. You cant have one without the other. So can i do that . No. I cant. But as we strive for that, am i utilizing technology to its optimum . Am i really using technology to optimize my work force effectiveness . Cbp is trying to create autonomous lanes in the future. Thats what you want so you can do whats referred to as screen at speed. Algina across the border should be no different than new york to new jersey. And can technology, there is technology that should allow me to be screened and advance enrollment, global entry, other technology that should allow that. And in many cases this technology exists. Were not waiting for it to be created. You know, its the elephant in the room. Bio metric, facial recognition. How come were not getting there faster . But i go to walt disney world, and i enter the park in and out be bio metrics. Fortune 500 companies can do it. It just seems that the government is not there yet. And while i will tell you with 35 plus years of experience, none of this is ever achievable without first and foremost partnerships. Because as alluded to, the supply chain or you can refer to it as a supply network, what its becoming, and if you dont have those partnerships, youre only going to be going back to the chain metaphor, only as strong as your weakest link. You mentioned 48 agency 47 agencies just on the u. S. Side . Yes. Jorge, how many on the mexican side . So there are two . I hear. Yeah. So its migration and as you know, were not migration and customs are separated. But no, theres also sanitary authorities there. And yeah. Pretty much but i mean, but we dont need them to be at the port of entry. I mean, theres no sense for them to be there. But the coordination because we have the single way, i mean, we are coordinating there. Right . So electronically, we dont need them to be there. In some cases yes, i mean, theres a need to be inspectors from other places, sanitary agencies. But the coordination, i think yeah, its key is fundamental for good processes, and perhaps im jumping ahead, but just use mca chapter 7 Customs Administration and transportation does a great deal for that, for that coordination. Its one of the biggest things that is in the text, that it enhances coordination. Not just between the three customs authorities but within our countries authorities. There is one disposition or one article referring to board inspections. We are committed, in the three countries were committing to try to do all the inspections that happen to be at the border to actually do it at the border, perform it at the border, and when available, in the same premises, because right now lets think about a port without ucp. So then you will have a first screening from our sanitary agency. Then second from customs. Then it crosses the bridge and then cbp primary, perhaps cbp secondary, and then fda, and then dot. So then that its just taking too long. So something that we put in test was if, of course, its a matter of investments as well and in the port of entry, but if available to have all those inspections, having or being done at once in one facility. So to do this concept of one stop shop. Of course it will take time, yeah, but were aiming to that, and that is exactly in the text. I think thats one of the good things or one of the very positive things that we could and i want to talk about the new trade agreement, but before we go there, what is the role as we talk about the private sector, of organizations . Civic or business organizations and the role in advancing some of the efficiencys . Thank you. Well, i represent an Organization Called the Smart Border Coalition to give you a sense for what this is. We put together about 75 to 80 different stake holders from both sides of the border. San diego and tijuana. Were conveners. We bring people together and talk about the issues. It could be access to lanes, technology use, president ial permit. It could be water issues. Theres a variety of things that we touch on. Four key dimensions. One is port and surrounding area modernization. Travel or guidance in education. Port construction. And traffic management. And pretty much everything falls under those categories. And weve got a very interesting set of leaders for both sides of the border. Leadership. Comprised of some of the most wellknown Business People and educators on both sides of the border. So just to give you a sense of what were talking about, we convene. We meet every two months and inbetween. So in much the same way as the bta does its work, we have to do it on a regional, local basis. I cross the border all the time between tijuana and san diego. Sometimes twice a day. I grew up on the mexican side of the border. I grew up in business. When you start looking at the private this private sector combined with government and ak deem wra, you start seeing the complexity of these things. But i wanted to touch on a few things regarding that. And i think part of the issues that we have in terms of modernity versus what allen was talking about, this true preclearance, is that on the ground we go through a number of challenges. One of those challenges is the frameworks. What are the frameworks were going to use . What are the problem statements that our regents have to answer to . And what we see is haphazard things going on at the border. So if you look at proofs of concept going on, of course you have a number of ports where things are happening. Canadian side, or u. S. Southern border. You see the proofs of concept, yet, we dont really have a clear notion of what all those projects are. We dont have an inventory of whats really happening in terms of proofs of concept and whether technology is taking place and what is working or what is not working and in terms of time lines. Allen said something about coordination. We believe that we have a huge challenge for coordination. Let me give you an example of that. Most of the border cities have binational plans. Binational infrastructure plans. You look at the state of baja, california and california. We have binational plans and everybody refers to them. The state of california is involved. San diego, California Department of transportation. They do a lot of work. But what happens is once you start implementing the programs and i can give you the examples of the reconfiguration of a port today. Whats happening . Well, the port is almost done. Reconfiguration is almost done. Done by august or september. But what happened with the mexican side of the border . We didnt know. We didnt know what the mexican side was going to do when it came to new lanes opening up. Otide two. Wonderful port. The u. S. Side has most of the financing done. The land has been bought. The roads have been built, and really its just that last segment where they need to built the port. The mexican side is way behind in this sense. Now, part of this is yes, the u. S. And mexico did Work Together on it. But the other part is do we have a time line from the mexican side to get things done . And theres sometimes we dont have that information at our fingertips. Jorge was talking about that cooperation between cbp and sat. It is true. I think weve had enormous cooperation. One of the things that happened lately was when the former alliance administrator, he was convening people on both sides of the border to actually discuss the details, the technical side of these things. Because thats where the rubber meets the road and thats when we have the challenges. And one last thing i want to say about data. We have a Data Infrastructure challenge at the border. Going to give you an example of that. The California Department of transportation in our area has a way to measure wait times going to the border. We dont have, yet, on the mexican side of the border, a way to tell wait times in realtime. If you can believe that. And theres a number of borders where that happens. Why is that so important . Well, its important, because if you look at the border as a system, if you look at the border as a node or as an eco system, its really very difficult to see what the impacts of this traffic going forward, backwards in a circular fashion is going to have on the ports. So this is very important that we have that wait time information. Same for cargo and for vehicles. But if we do that, then that lends itself to a number of different applications but again, we have to really concentrate the efforts of academics, civil vote, governments on lets focus on a Border Solutions type of an alliance. And allen, you mentioned you made a comparison to walt disney. When you go to disney land, you can download an app, and it will tell you what the wait times are for each ride. They can figure it out, i think we can too. You would think. You talked about the challenges for rail capacity, process. What are the solutions . What are some and you touched on it, but if you can give us some idea on that, and if this trade agreement, the u. S. Mca can be helpful in a accomplishing that . Yes, its really and just going back to the discussion about how many agencies. And you know, thats weve been working on some of these things for five or more years. And as ive said as we work through some of these issues, you need a really big conference room. Because youve got so many people on both sides of the border, and i dont want to i mean, i completely agree with everything thats been said. The cooperation locally, between all of these agencies is really phenomenal, and again, picking up on something that henry, the congressman said, you know, if you go spend time at the border and you see how cooperative and how inextricably linked these communities are, you know, t refreshing, and it makes you feel like the world outside of washington is generally a better place, but that aside. But its just a combination of all these things. Its infrastructure. Its technology. Its process. Its u. S. Mca as jorge mentioned as things that are helpful. Were making good process. I have enjoyed the company of congressman on two occasions in the last year, cutting ribbons in texas to open a joint cargo inspection facility in loreto, texas where the mexican and u. S. Inspection for northbound freight is going to take place in a unified cargo environment. We opened another one in our yard in loreto where secondary cargo inspection. Each one of these, were knocking them off one at a time. Unfortunately there are so many people involved, you have to do it that way. And were definitely making progress. The technology, theres no doubt, its there. And i kind of as i was thinking about this, why cant we do what they do at walt disney world, i dont know, if you guys considering hiring mic mickey mouse as a consultant . I think to some extent, why invest in technology if you dont have the path to use it . And so but that could change really quickly. I mean, this technology is available. Its not all that expensive. I mean, its expensive, but its not like youre starting from scratch. It could be used and it could be employed pretty quickly. And we just need to clear the path really from id say from maybe a legal regulatory standpoint to be able to take advantage of it. And then it feels to me particularly with the changes in u. S. Mca and the breakthrough hopefully if we get it approved and we remove some of the impediments and the cloud of uncertainty that we can start to accelerate the progress. Thank you. That was a perfect i think a really great overview. Anybody want to say anything . No. I think the most everything he says is relevant. I caught myself. But i think its people dont use the technology. I think if you actually we could have a whole discussion on this. You may not need to expand the infrastructure. And i ask clients on occasion, why are you harping on i need more staff, i need more staff, i need more people . You just want your people the passengers cleared quicker. You just want your cargo cleared quicker. If Work Force Optimization should be as defined as you hire the right people, you train them accordingly. You support them with proper legislation. You augment the legislation with proper regulations. You provide appropriate with some degree of flexibility Standard Operating Procedures so newark, new jersey isnt being treated like loreto, texas and you augment them with technology and operationalize the technology accordingly. There are so many places around the world that ask us to come in and help them and we say you put your technology at the wrong place. Youre not using it. And if you do that, i dont think anybody is ever determined. Do we really need to expand the infrastructure or do we really need to hire more people . If everybody used global entry, they have an app for passengers coming in. They have mobile capability, it would be amazing how much less staff would be needed. Yeah. Thats a good point. And this perspective that you have today, what is it a combination of your time in the Public Sector and the private sector . How did it change or did you learn anything different moving into the private sector . We didnt prepare this. But this is interesting. Im allowed for the candid response that somebody has asked me that recently. What was the difference when you were in the government and now that youre in private industry, and remember, i spent my whole adult life. Im 61, 30 plus years in the government. I really didnt spend a lot of time in the private sector before the last five years. And i said i could have had a mediocre year in the government. And im guaranteed im going to probably get a budget next year. Have a mediocre year in the private sector and well all be telling each other how great we are in the unemployment line. I believe i had because the people, the ncbfaa and others constantly reminded me what its like to meet bottom lines, payroll. The margins are like 2 , and everything you and your 46 other Government Agencies has a real impact on us. And i think many people have an appreciation of that, but now being in the private sector, id like to say i have much more of an awareness. So the need for the technologies, to me, the need to move at speed, to run your company live, you know, i just highlighted under armor because theyre in baltimore and we had an opportunity to go there and get educated by their chief data officer. When he explained it, im saying okay, now you have Companies Running their operations live. And just as a perfect example for those who may not know, simply put, they know when their client needs a new pair of running shoes. Two weeks before those shoes are going to wear out. Theyre mailing them their shoes. Thats what they numerous examples, but thats what they talk about running your company live. If cbp or any other Government Agency both on the south side of the border and those can also give responses to the trade community in realtime so the shipments dont have to stand hours or days congesting his rail yards, taking pressure space away, so you wont maybe not need to expand it. If decisions can be made in realtime relative to passengers, why do you need to expand what are called federal inspection sites, fis, where you go in and just theres massive congestion . That was the perspective before and the perspective after. I mean, thats very useful. Perhaps with the exception of jorge who is brilliant, perhaps every Government Official should be in the work in the private sector before working in government if you reversed. What you know today you know could have helped you today. I mean, youre pretty astute. The dutch allow for their Customs Officials to take a ent sabbatical and go into the private industry and theyre guaranteed employment when they go back to the dutch customs to gain that awareness. I did work in the private sector for three years. No wonder. We are going to open it up to questions from the audience. So if anybody is ready, if not, i have a few more. I just wanted to give you that heads up so you can start prepping your questions. Any questions yet . Hello. In addition to the trust and Trader Program, social in the port of loreto, maybe a plug for you, i think outreach is an opportunity to go out and get more participants involved. I think were doing 7500 trucks a day and only 2000 are involved in the fast lane. Is there anything else we can do in addition to policy changes . Realistically, theres certain things we could tweak out to get more participants. Well, i guess i would have to first explain what a trusted Trader Program is in the u. S. Its now called ct pat. Historically it was called super Carrier Initiative program. Americas countersmuggling industry. Its industry led and called Business Alliance of secure commerce. Most of the time i think in mexico its called neck. I think in canada its called pip. You enroll in a program. You say if im trusted, i am willing to give you any and all information you want, and in return, i get expedited clearance. So ct pat has about 10,000 or 12,000 companies. It should not be confused with the program called importer selfassessment. You have to remember on the trusted Trader Programs the supply chain, if youre trying to protect the security of the supply chain convey, youre trying to do it to prevent narcotics or other elicit items from compromising that. That is very different, somebody can have tremendous supply Chain Security on their conveyance but have terrible commercial compliance. Theyre declaring it incorrectly. Theyre not doing valuation correctly. That should also not be confused with the third option of does the Company Practice sound financial practices. In answer to the wellexperienced, informed individual, your answer quite candidly, sometimes people will go into the ct pat program because its the security. But i dont know. Maybe my cynicism says they want willful blindness of not going into the isa because that requires auditing and opening ones book. If somebody truly wants to be a trusted partner, they have to be able to expose their entire company in order to get the benefits of what a trusted partnership is. Generally the contentiousness comes around. Generally people want more benefits. The u. S. Examines less than 5 of cargo coming into the United States anyway and trusted partners get examined, like, 1 . Theres a gentleman who said 1 . Ill use that as my own internal control to make sure my own company is doing what its supposed to be doing. I usually challenge, if you really want to exhibit yourself as a good corporate citizen, you should just do it. Theres a t shirt, i think, just do it. Jorge, do you want to add . Ill add that weve been to answer the question, yes, i think so the ucp program, we did it at the beginning at, lets see, in an environment where we feel safe and we feel comfortable with it. So thats why we begin with a couple of pilots, and we just a couple of industries. And, of course, just the trusted traders. And its been evolving since then. So we have now 13, and in some ports of entry, its for the 100 of the shipments. Of course those are small ports of entry that have not big numbers in terms of operations. And the industries that processes their shipments there are very, i mean, not how we will say not high risk. But i think it is i mean, the pilot is getting material enough to begin further expansion. Not just about going to another mode of transportation which actually we are going to also open in a pilot perhaps next couple of months in the maritime environment, but also to have more companies, more industries involved in this. So far we have around 400 companies benefitting from this. We need more than that. We want more than that. We have around 13, 14 different industries. We want more. We are working together. Of course with cbp. For instance in the valleys, we want to have the Fresh Produce using the usp. We need to work on that. Its very complicated for them. We know that, to be certified, or aeo, but we need to find a way of getting them involved in this, in these programs, and in having good use of this unified cargo processing, and let me just i will just add one. Weve been talking about infrastructure and processes and competitiveness and efficiencies. And we havent talked about Risk Management. I mean, not directly. Somehow allen mentioned it. These aeo programs, its precisely this, Risk Management. If you open your information to the authority, and we are confident. We feel good with your information. We know that you are a trusted trader, then youll get less than 1 of lets say red lines. In order for us to get a better Risk Management, we need more information. We need better information. So if the better information we get and, of course, in advance, the easier it will be for us to process the shipments and, of course, the faster it will be for you to cross the border. Any other questions . Sam . And then well go back. A mic is coming, on its way. Sam with the board of trade alliance. Al, you go way back, and jorge is new. But youre all saying trust me, the government. Thats what youre saying. And when we go to mexico city and try to have meetings together with businesses, and we say were going to invite sat, they say no, we dont want to have anything to do with that. Theres an issue there in terms of confidence in what the government has access to. And so as far as i know, you dont have the best internet connections. You dont have the most secure systems in the world, and with whats going on in the international intrusion business, i think that is something the government needs to settle on what theyre going to do and what they need to make a decision. They dont need to know your competitive business activities. But they do need to know that youre declaring things honestly. Theres a difference. Right. Id like you all to comment on that. Sure. So mr. Vail is talking about proprietary information. Its always been a challenge of private industry being reluctant to provide information to the government because of the sensitivity of that information. Its a valid and appropriate concern, but i think in fairness id like to add for my former colleagues that of anywhere in the world, cbp, the u. S. Government is probably the most aggressive in maintaining partnerships. Theres something called the commercial operations advisory counsel. Its by law. Every three months you have an open forum that anybody in the room can sign into the website and you hear the discussions and the dialogues about every initiative thats ongoing between the government and the industry at large. Theres 20 elected members that represent the industry, and they serve twoyear terms and they rotate and can only send, i think two serve two consecutive terms. They have a trade symposium meeting. Im going to date myself. Its the hottest ticket. It sells out faster than Whitney Houston used to sell out. But its at only 1,000, and they tried to do it one on the east coast and the west coast said it takes us all day to travel back and forth. I know most of the world. I attended the world customs organization. It represents 182 countries. Nowhere else does that. Yes, it sometimes hampers whats referred to as the single window. Submit once, used multiple times. As mr. Ottenmeyers indicated xray once, send the images multiple times. If we send it somewhere, are all the parties trusted . Were going back to deputy secretary Michael Jackson who wanted to do what was called a global trade exchange. He couldnt get agreement in the room. He held up his credit card and said why can i go anywhere in the world and my credit card will be accepted and i only gave one entity, my information. I can use it anywhere, 180 countries but somehow we cant come to something in this community. He even said lets reside it as the world customs organization. All the data that can be used to do advanced Data Analytics to screen at speed. You wouldnt have to expand another bridge or any other plaza or anything. So thats my transparency on behalf of my former colleagues. Does anybody want to add . I think there was an important concept. Typically well talk about efficiency and security at the border. Well talk about them being not mutually exclusive. But then theres the issue of trust. Do we actually trust the u. S. Or the Mexican Government to get things done . And i like the fact that u. S. Mca is codifying some of these things. Aeo, Risk Management, a single window. Use of information technology. It seems to be binding the parts into doing something. Obviously it wont tell you heres what you need to do to get there. We have to figure that out. But, again, coming from my standpoint of civil society, we need to push the levers and knock on the doors. We need to be persistent and ask the authority what happened with this or that. An example is with the Risk Management is that we as a coalition started looking at the otimesa port of entry, and we actually did a sampling. We still do it, of trucks crossing the border. One of the problems we have is that people dont want to share the information. So as a binational group, Nonpartisan Group at that, what weve asked the trade communities to give us information, not for every single thing they have crossing the border. Not for every single conveyance, but some of them so we have enough of a sample to produce information so we can share that information with the agencies. Thats a different story. The agencies statement dont want to get, dont want to receive that information. For a variety of reasons. But i think we need to go in that direction where there are some biNational Organizations where we collect that information in a very objective way. We have the raw data. We process that data and show it to the binational community. Whether thats cargo, or thats anybody who wants to cross the border. We really have i know a lot of this is about trade, but its much more than trade. Its about people who want to cross that border every single day. Its the exchange that the ambassador was talking about. Its a social exchange. Its an educational exchange. So we have this movement. And its very, very important that we look at those aspects of the relationship as well. And the Risk Management is involved this that as well for people crossing. Thank you. Were out of time, but i want to let you ask a very quick question. Im we have two borders. Im wondering if theres any successful strategies or procedures that are used with the canadians that could be applied to the southern border. Ill take a first shot at this. Some of the things i talked about in terms of the way trains cross the border, its were basically replicating what happens between canada and the u. S. And i dont know i mean, i think its across the board. We would make enormous progress if we could duplicate, replicate what happens in canada at the southern border. Now, we want to go beyond that, because i know that there are some things going on with canada. Use of technology, but if we could just get parity with canada, wed be better off. You mentioned the harm onizing . Harmonizing data. Were aiming to have a trilateral single window. So at the same time with one click, three border authorities will have the exact same information, the exact same set of data set to do the risk analysis. So a shipment coming from montreal to monterey, the same click and were doing the single risk analysis. I know theyre replicating things with the canadians in their shared border in terms of ucp, et cetera, but we definitely are talking trilaterally in a lot of lanes, and, of course, the usmca has allowed that. If i can give an example based on expanding and your question about the northern border and particularly to rail lines so all my comments arent perceived as possibly aspirational. Heres about to close to screen thats out there at speed. You have large scale Imaging Equipment. Thats imaging is generally meaning xray versus radiation portal monitors. You have large scale Imaging Equipment that used to move over, move over a conveyance. It stayed stationary and you drive it over. When we first started deploying these in 96, we used to pull large tractortrailers through six or seven stationaries almost like a car wash, pulling it through and you get xray images. All the sudden the engineers said well, on the northern border, why dont we keep the technology stationary . Well figure out the algorithms or whatever else and let the trains drive through them . And then well take the images and just remotely why do you have to be sitting 20 feet from there . Why cant that image be sent to where the port of entry is . And so now you have these conveyances driving through technology. People who maybe have never heard that term, screening at speed, its a proof of consent. Its being done concept. Its being done. Its a matter of taking that and replicating that or modifying it to other areas. Thank you. With that, id like to just for fun, just for fun want to ask a yes or no question. Is it feasible to close the border . Its a threat weve heard a couple times. Yes or no . Just for fun. I thought you were going to ask me if i was still a new york met fan. That i would say yes. I dont want to get that sensitive. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. At least in my career, we never close the border. Even after 9 11, the border was never technically closed. It brought things to a screeching halt where the consequence undermining the u. S. Economic situation was catastrophic, but the border was never closed. Pat . No. No. You heard it here. Thank you all for being here, and thank you for our panelists for joining us. A Small Network with an unusual name rouled out a big idea. Let viewers make up their own minds. Cspan opened the doors to washington policy looking for all to see. Bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. A lot has changed in 40 years but today that big idea is more relevant than ever. On television and online, cspan is your unfiltered view of government so you can pick up your own mind. Brought to you as a Public Service by your cable or satellite provider. Coming up later today on cspan3. Federal and state emergency initials testify about natural disaster. It begins at 2 p. M. Live eastern today. We welcome abigail spanberger. Where viewers probably know her as one of the two freshman members of congress who previously served as cia officers. Can we talk about the work that you did for the cia and how that job prepared you for this zblob. Sure. As a cia officer i was a case officer. I was recruiting people to commit foreign nationals to commit us spee nauj to provide us with information that allows our government to make good and informed decisions about issues of National Security. And i think the way that my experience as
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.