We will get started here. Over the next, i would say most important part of the day, thank you all. My name is polat avila plus im and chairman of the border trade alliance. My day job is Vice President of the San Diego Regional Chamber of commerce. I have to start by taking this is my favorite conference each year. Whether you are new to the conversation of u. S. Mexico relationship and border or you are an expert paula avila the panel of speakers at this conference always provide insightful and thought provoking comments. This panel is no exception. We are really pleased to hear and have them here. I will run through and introduce them. To frame the conversation, on these panels, they have lived and breathed and in a couple of cases run the Border Management ports of entry. We will cover a variety of factors that Border Management entails, which is complicated. We have to ensure security and at the same time facilitate trade and travel and do this across a 2000 mile border. With that, that entails 2 countries, their respective local and state governments, politics, the private sector, good thing funding is unlimited. [ laughter ] it was a joke. We know that. We have no money. Our speakers will talk about physical border infrastructure, staffing, implementation of programs such as word mentioned previously, the united cargo processing, joint inspections, and perhaps we can talk about southbound inspections as well. What does the 21st century Border Management look like . New technology, more staffing, additional ports of entry as the ambassador mentioned, they are widely inadequate and need to be updated and monetization. Of course talking about the nafta 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 i am excited to hear what each of you has to say. Lets get started. We have with us more than mr. Fuente with more than 25 years of expansion baking. He served as director of the smart border coalition, the organization based in my hometown in see san diego and tijuana. Is a founder of a commercial Real Estate Company in sonora. He is on the board of the kingstown Financial Partners and the International Community foundation a Nonprofit Foundation of choice for u. S. Donors passionate about protecting the environment and improving the quality of life in Baja California and latin america. To his left, this gentleman served 7 years as technical secretary of the Foreign Relations commission and the senate of the republic of mexico and served as the International Affairs minister of finance and public credit for 2 years. Since 2015, mr. Alvarez tovar has worked in the Customs Administration, and central administrator of customs planning and central advisor of customs and International Affairs serving as the minister representative in washington, d. C. Thank you for joining us. Most notably, i will say, he received the chambers kris porter Collaboration Award last year on behalf of us, where we honored them for their working partnership and that is added to his resume. Mr. Allen gina is the cofounder of ct strategies, working on supplychain challenges in the u. S. And around the world. Mr. Ginas previously served as assistant commissioner for International Trade of the u. S. Customs and border protection. As assistant commissioner he oversaw a workforce of over 1000 employees and a budget of over 300 million. He was responsible for leading the most extensive trade Transformation Initiative in history. In his 30 year career at cbpn, his predecessor agency, he was a pioneer and a leader developing broad and far reaching national and International Programs to support antiterrorism and trade transformation policies. Mr. Patrick ottensmeyer is executive Vice President and chief Financial Officer since 2008. He was named executive Vice President of sales and marketing , named president in 2015, and chief executive officer since 2016. He has a broad range of experience from various Senior Executive positions. He has health and at the kcs over the last 10 years and served as chief Financial Officer and of econo therapeutics inc. And corporate Vice President and treasurer of dade bearings holdings inc. He served as Vice President of finance and treasurer of Burlington Northern santa fe corporation, also known as bnsf. Thank you for joining us. The 4 of you. We will start with opening questions here. Just broad questions. But if you can give an overview. In particular, for each of you, i will provide a focus. Allen, if you would start us by , from your history and your prior work at cbp, if you could talk about the evolution of the cbp history and the relationship. Absolutely. It is a pleasure to be here. I think the Wilson Center for the opportunity. Relative to the question, you heard part of my resume. It is in the materials. I wore a uniform for 15 years in the field in several locations. And the headquarters i spent 5 years. 9 11 happened. I became a headquarters lifer. I had the opportunity to spend and serve at the pleasure of great cbp leadership of benner, basham, berson. I was there right after 9 11. Relative to my background, it was absolutely overthetop fabulous in cooperation. 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. The leadership at cbp has a longestablished, evolving relationship with our partners in sad. I was telling somebody earlier, to tell you how strong it was, there is an individual and esteemed individual who recently retired from sad. He was here stationed in washington, d. C. Most of you already know who i am talking about. Esther martini. I am, i have constantly reminded him, after being in country 24 straight years, his children are more american than my child. [ laughter ] that relationship has always been strong. It continues to be strong. And to close, you will notice, the previous secretary ms. Nelson, would always talk about the relationship with her counterparts. Mr. Patrick mcaleenan, who is the acting secretary now, he always talks about his relationship. You go on any youtube or other query, robert perez is a current career deputy commissioner. He is always talk about the wonderful relationship. Regardless, now that i am retired, i can say this, regardless of the rhetoric from the white house, the relationship at the Agency Department level is fabulous. Thank you. I think that is critical to note. Without that cooperation we do not have Border Management on either side. You cannot run it one sided. Mr. Tovar from the mexican perspective, and as cbp counterpart, your perspective and the work you are doing today. Thank you, paola. It is an honor to share this panel. Thank you for that opportunity. I will echo what alan said. I think that sad and cbp relationship is the best. Honestly, i dont think it has been better. The thing is, i am not a politician. We spent our days we do not spend our days thinking on how to keep our jobs we spend our days doing the jobs. We do not, we really take care of the daytoday business. We are building a great partnership. I mean, allen said it very well. My predecessor mr. Martinez was here 24 years. He helped in that. We are keeping that up. I think that this is a problem that you are ready heard about them. The best thing, they are creating quicker, theyre doing a lot of good for the business community, for the stakeholders, reducing the times, the border wait times from 3 hours to 35 minutes or in some ports of entry down to 15 minutes. Yes, that is great. But, what these pilots are doing, they are creating or Building Trust between both organizations. Their Building Trust within both customs offices. And with this trust comes a great partnership. I totally agree, we are doing great and we will continue to do so. Could we have accomplished unified cargo processing without that partnership . I think, probably not. You know, i think that is 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 where you are reviewing and like a program csi, Container Security initiative, you are ensuring things are safe before they get on the vessel. Actual clearance has always been in the air environment. People say, why is it in the air environment . Because, the common thinking is, once the aircraft leaves, and it is airborne, it is not going to get compromised. So, to think about why, for so long, there has never been true preclearance of cargo especially with between u. S. And mexico, u. S. And canada it 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 it is still on the ground. Therefore, completely undermining the purpose of preclearance. So, that requires and not only level of cooperation, but trust in both parties to actually go from preclearance of air environment to preclearance of lan environment. Thank you. I think it is really important to review that history. And the current relationship, so we can figure out how to improve efficiencies at the border. Where do we go for the future to 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 cargo as the congressman mentioned, laredo is our major crossborder gateway, the busiest cargo gateway across the entire border , whether you are 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, usmca 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 3, 5 years and beyond, i believe, to significantly reduce that trade deficit. 2 of the biggest opportunities where our company is investing heavily to build infrastructure and capacity to do that are Refined Petroleum products as a function of Mexican Energy reform. Energy as part of usmca. It was not part of nafta. And plastic, as a result of all of the petro petrochemical plants, processors, refineries as they go through the u. S. Those products go into mexico for things Like Electronics and autoparts 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 cannot do it by physical infrastructure. Its just too expensive. And, some of the things that i am sure we will talk about, whether it is inspections, or crews, again, the congressman mentioned the international crew. The where train crosses the border is ridiculous. We explained it to people. It is like we are in the 18th century. For those of us not familiar, could you briefly tell us what it looks like . The train goes to the middle of the bridge. It is out at the worst possible, the narrowest possible bottleneck. It is a single light bridge. And it stops. The crew gets off, whether it is northbound or southbound, walked back to its home, probably 1 mile are more. Im told the weather in loreto can be nasty. The crew walks back and take the train across. Not only does it take up that is 20 to 30 minutes. You think about how much capacity that is soaking up. Dead, just because that train is stopped, within 10 miles of that point, there are big railyards on both sides of the border that you can get that train out of the way, 10 miles out of the way. Safe, secure, it is not locking the grade crossings and interfering with First Responders blocking the grade crossings or interfering with First Responders and traffic and doing the work necessary. If we can change the process, that is just 1 part of it. Inspections, customs, everything else, is a contributed factor as well. Our modeling shows we should almost double we could almost double the capacity at that bridge without spending thats how much money and time would it take to build a new international bridge . Without spending hundreds of millions or billions of dollars and taking 5, 10 years to or as the congressman suggested, building overpasses for i dont know how many, 20, 25 grade crossings . That is another billiondollar project. So its processes that we need to focus on to improve the efficiency, and take advantage. These products i talked about, plastics and petrochemicals, and Refined Petroleum products, gasoline, diesel, they want to move by rail. There is not sufficient truck capacity. Mayor, if you want the trucks moving through your town, there are not sufficient truck capacity to move through those. They want to move by rail. In order for us to take advantage of that, we need to improve and modernize the processes for moving cargo across the bridge, across the border. Thank you. And, gustavo, yeah i prefer, at any time, jump in. This process that pat already explained, it is crazy to have that, while at the same time, in the same border crossing, we are sharing in a matter of less than 1 second, we are sharing the images that were capturing on our internet equipment. We are using that technology. We are doing a great job doing joint inspections. We are sharing the images. We are both authorities doing the Risk Assessment at the same time, in microseconds. But, at the time you have this process, it is crazy to think about. I just if i chime in here what he is talking about is very important. What you have is modernity, advancement, unwanted side. And you have reality on the ground. What is really going on in the ground . And what is sometimes preventing things from happening . The transactions from happening faster . So, its a very important thing. Its a dichotomy we live in. Its contrast. It happens in various areas. And sometimes on, the processing on one side of the border might move faster than the other. I know that that is even with unified cargo processing. It is still a remaining challenge. I think that is important to note. Most people do not understand. There are several terms of art. You have to understand the magnitude. Generally, if we go into a country, in my post government life, they say we we want you to help us create a regional initiative. I say, well, you have actually maxed out on coordinated Border Management and crossborder coordinated management. Words matter. So, hopefully, you caught that with my new york accent, right . [ laughter ] and i would say, no. In the u. S. There are 47 agencies that has 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 is border coordinated management to make sure that your port of entry that is 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. And so, why you can view move traffic when it way, you cannot move it both ways. And then, at least for north america, you could say that is your regional or trilateral arrangement. And that is extremely difficult and complex. Because, if it was not 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 judge bonner and mr. Berson. Academics. Besides yale and road scholars, i dont know how we ended up in the harvard football hall of fame. Im not sure if the guy ever slept or what he did. But, the thinking is nirvana, would have been Perimeter Security. If you can harmonize all the various complex aspects between canada and 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, that is not the case. And this panel is 21st century. We are already 1 5 of the way through the 21st century. So, if i could, i will give you 2 minutes, which might, you know, allow Patrick Ottensmeyer to tell you exactly what they are doing in kansas city, which shows you there really is some activity that can be done to get return on investment. First of all, modern Custom Services or any Government Agencies have to be able to run their company live, as kevin plank from under armour promotes, and we are far from it. What does that mean for me as a former thirtyyear customs official . Can i make decisions in real time that is supported by security . My security to my responsibility to the eunice is National Security and promoting economic competitiveness and prosperity. You cant have 1 without the other. So can i do that . No i cannot. But as we strive for that, am i utilizing technology to its optimum . And we really using technology to optimize my workforce effectiveness . Cbp is trying to create autonomous lanes in the future. That is what you want so you can do what is referred to as screen at speed. Allen gina walking across the border should be no different than allergy not walking from new york to new jersey. As a new yorker i am not sure why i would want to go to new jersey [ laughter ] technology. There is technology that should allow me to be screened. And advance enrollments, global entry, other technology that should allow that. And in many cases, this technology exists. We are not waiting for it to be creative. You know, it is the elephant in the room. Biometric, facial recognition, how come we are not getting there faster . But i go to Walt Disney World, and i enter the park in and out with biometrics. Fortune 500 companies can do it. It just seems that the government is not there yet. I will tell you with 35 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 it is becoming, and if you dont have those partnerships, youre only going to be back to that chain metaphor, only as strong as your weakest link. You mentioned 47 agencies, just on the u. S. Side . Yes. Jorge, how many agencies on the mexico side . So, there are 2 . I here. Yeah, so its migration and as you know, we are not migration and customs are separated. But no, there is also sanitary authorities there. And yeah, pretty much, but i mean, we dont need them to be at the port of entry. I mean, there is no sense for them to be there. But the coordination because we have a single way, i mean we are coordinating there, right . So electronically, we dont need them to be there. In some cases, yes, i mean, there is a need to be inspectors from other places, the sanitary agencies. But the coordination, i think, yeah, it is key, it is fundamental, for good processes. And, perhaps i am jumping ahead, but just use mca chapter 7 Customs Administration and transportation, it does a great deal for that. For that coordination. I think it is one of the biggest things that is in the text, that it enhances coordination. Not just between the 3 customs authorities, but within our countries authorities. There is one disposition or one article referring to border inspections. That we are committed, in the three countries, we are committing, to try to do all the inspections that happen to be at the border to actually do it at the border, performant at the border. When available, in the same premises. Because, right now, so, lets think about a port without ucp. You will have the first screening from our sanitary agency. Then, a second from customs. Then it crosses the bridge, and then cbp primary, perhaps cbp secondary, and then fda, and then dot. So, then that it is just taking too long. So, something that we put in the text was, if, of course, its a matter of investments, as well, and in in the port of entry, but it is available to have all those inspections. Having them being done at once in 1 facility. So, to do this concept, of 1 stop shop. Of course, it will take time, yeah, but we are aiming to that. That is exactly in the text. I think that is 1 of the good things or 1 of the very positive things that we could use. And i do want to talk about the new trade agreements, but before we go there, gustavo, 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 efficiencies . 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 stakeholders from both sides of the border, san diego and tijuana. We are conveners in many ways. We bring people together and talk about the issues. It could be access to lanes, it could be technologies, it could be president ial permits. It could be what your issues. There are a variety of things we touch on. One is port and surrounding area modernization, traveler guidance education, port construction, and traffic management. Pretty much everything falls under those categories. And we have 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 we are talking about, we convene. We made every 2 month and in between. So, in much the same way as the bta does its work, we have to do it on a regional, local basis. I crossed the border all the time between tijuana and san diego, sometimes twice a day. I am from nogales. I grew up on the mexican side of the border. I grew up in business. When you start looking at the private sector combined with government and academia, you start seeing the complexity of all these things. But, i want to touch on a few things regarding that. And i think part of the issues that we have in terms of identity versus what allen was talking about, this true preclearance, is that, on the ground, we go through a number of challenges. 1 of those challenges is the remarks. What other frameworks we are going to use . What are the lump statements that our regions 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. Mexican side, the was southern border. You see all these bruce of concept. Yet, we dont really have a clear notion of what all those projects are. We dont have an inventory of what is really happening in terms of proofs of concept, and whether technology is taking place and what is working or what is not working in terms of timelines. 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 southern california. We have binational plans. Everybody refers to them. The state of california is involved. San diego, the association of governments, the California Department of transportation, they do a lot of work. What happens is, once you start implementing these programs, and he give you the examples of the sand ysidro reconfiguration of the port today. San ysidro port reconfiguration. It will be done in august or september. What happens on the mexico side of the border . We did not know. We did not know what the mexico side would do when it came to those new lanes opening up. A wonderful port. The u. S. Side has most of the financing done. The land has been purchased. The road seven built. Really, it is just the last segment where they need to build the port. The mexican side is way behind in sense. Part of this is, yes, the u. S. And mexico did Work Together on it. The other part is, do we have a timeline from the mexican side to get things done . Sometimes, we do not have that information. Jorge was talking about the cooperation between the cbp side. It is true. We have had enormous cooperation. One thing that happens lately, starting in january, was when the former alliance administrator, rafael peralta, he was convening people on both sides of the border to actually discuss the details, the technical side of these things. That is where the rubber meets the road. That is sometimes where we have the challenges. And one less thing i want to say about data. We have a Data Infrastructure challenge at the border. Let me 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, and we did tell wait times in real time. If you can believe that. And there is a number borders for that happens. So, why is that important . Well, it is important, because if you look at the border as a system, if you look at the border as a node or ecosystem, it is really very difficult to see what the effects of the traffic going forward, backward, in a circular fashion, is going to have on the ports. So, it is very important that we have that wait time information. The 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 academia, government, private enterprise, civil society, 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 disneyland, 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, right . You would think. Pats, 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 usmca can be helpful in accomplishing that . Yes, it is really and is going back to the discussion about how many agencies. And, you know, that is, we have been working on some of these things for 5 or more years. And as i have 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 that has been said. The cooperation locally, between all of these agencies, is really phenomenal. And, again, picking up on something that hungry, the congressman said, if you go spend time at the border, and you see how cooperative and how inextricably linked these communities are, you know, it is refreshing. And, it makes you feel like the world outside of washington is generally a better place [ laughter ] that aside. But, its just a combination of all these things. It is infrastructure, it technology, process, usmca, as were he mentioned, has things that are helpful. We are making good progress. I am enjoy the company of the congressman on 2 occasions in the last year, cutting ribbons in loreto texas to open a joint cargo inspection facility in loreto, texas, where the mexican and u. S. Inspection for northbound freight will take place in a unified cargo environment. Wilbon another one in our yard in loreto , texas, where secondary cargo inspection, unified cargo inspection. Each one of these, we are knocking them off one at a time. Unfortunately, there are so many people involved, you have to do it that way. And we are definitely making progress. The technology, there is no doubt, it is there. And, i kind of, as i was thinking about this, why cant we do what they do at Walt Disney World . Have you guys considered hiring a key mouse as a consultant . [ laughter ] i think, to some extent, why invest in technology if you do not have the path to use it . And, so, but that could change really quickly. This technology is available. It is not all that expensive it is not like you are starting from scratch. It could be used and employed quickly. We just need to clear the path, really, from a legal regulatory standpoint to take advantage of it. And it feels to me, particularly with the changes in the usmca, and the breakthrough, hopefully, if we get this 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. Everything he says is relevant. I caught myself there. But i think, people do not use the [null] technology. I think if you actually, we could have a whole discussion on this. You may not need to expand infrastructure. 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 workforce 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 new york, new jersey is not being treated like loreto, texas. And you augment them with technology and you operationalize the technology accordingly. Theres so many places around the world that ask us to come in and help them. We just say, you put your technology at the wrong place. You are 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 really be needed. Yeah, that is 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 did not 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 are in the government, and now that you are in private industry, and remember, i spent my whole adult life. I am 61, 30 years in the government. So, i really didnt spend a lot of time in the private sector before the last 5 years. And i said, i could have had a mediocre year and the government, and im guaranteed im going to probably get a budget next year. I have a mediocre year in the private sector, and we all tell each other how great we are in the unemployment line. You know, i believe i had, because the people, with kathy in here, and the ncb faa, and others constantly reminded me what it is like to meet payroll, the margins, all 50 , the margins are too 2 . And you want 46 other Government Agencies, it has a real impact on us. And, i think many people have an appreciation of that. Now being in the private sector, i would like to say i have much more of an awareness. So, the need for these technologies, to me, the need to move at speed, 2 your company live, i just highlighted under armour, because they are in baltimore. We had the opportunity to go there and get educated by their chief data officer. When he explained it, im saying, okay, you have Companies Running their operations life. 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. 2 weeks before the shoes are going to wear out. They are mailing them their shoes. That is what they numerous examples, but that is what they talk about, running your company live. If cbp or any other government agency, both on the south side of the border and can also give responses to the trade community in realtime, so those shipments dont have to stand hours or days can jesting he is railyards, taking precious 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 explant what are called federal expection sites, fas, where you go in and there is massive congestion . That was the perspective before and the perspective after. That is very useful. Perhaps with the exception of jorge, who is brilliant, perhaps every Government Official should be in, work in the private sector before working in government. What you know today could have helped you yesterday you are pretty astute. The dutch allow for their Customs Officials to take a sabbatical and go into private industry. They are guaranteed employment when they go back to dutch customs to gain that awareness. I did work in the private sector for 3 years. There you go. 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 . Okay. Hello mr. Gina. In addition to the trust and trade program, especially in the port of loreto, maybe a plug for you, i think outreach is an opportunity to go out and get more participants of all. I think were doing 7500 trucks per day and only 2000 are involved in the fast lane. Is there anything else we can do in addition to certain policy changes . I know that, realistically, there are 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. It is now called ct at. Historically it was cold super Carrier Initiative program, americas catchers smuggling initiative. The alliance of secure commerce. It is industry lead. It is called Business Alliance of secure commerce. Right . Most of the time, i think, in mexico, its called neck. I think in canada, it is called pip. You and all enroll in a program. You say, if i am testing, i allen gina and willing to give you any and all information you want. 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 Program, the supply chain, if you are trying to protect the security of the pai chain , the conveyance, you are generally trying to do it to prevent narcotics or other illicit items from compromising the conveyance to be used as a conduit to get to a place of destination. That is very different. Somebody can have tremendous supplychain security on their conveyance, but have terrible commercial compliance. Activities, such as they are declaring it incorrectly. They are falsifying country of origin. They are not doing valuation correctly. They should also not be confused with the third option of, does the Company Practice sound financial practices . So, in answer to the very well experienced and informed individual, your answer, quite candidly, sometimes is people will go into the ct pat program, because it is the security. But i dont know. Maybe my cynicism says, they want willful blindness of not going into the i assay because that requires auditing the isa, because that requires opening once book. If somebody wants to be a trusted partner, they have to be able to expose their entire company to get the benefits. Of what a trusted partnership is. Generally, the contentiousness comes around, people say i will more benefits. The u. S. Examines less than 5 of cargo coming into the United States anyway. Trusted partners get examined, 1 . There is a gentleman who said 1 . I will use that as my own internal control, just to make sure my own company is doing what it is supposed to be doing. I usually challenge, and it goes back to the government, if you want to exhibit yourself as a good corporate citizen, you should just do it. There is a tshirt, i think, just do it. [ laughter ]. Jorge, do you want to add to that . To answer the question, i think the the program the internment where we feel safe and we thought would be comfortable with it. That is what, with a couple of pilots, and of course, the trusted traders. It has been evolving since then. So we have no 13, and in some ports of entry, it is 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 process their shipments are very, i mean, not how will we say, not a risk but, i think it is, 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 in the 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 benefiting from this. We need more than that. We want more than that. We have around 1314 different industries. We want more. Where working together, of course, with cbp. For instance, in the valleys, we want to have the Fresh Produce using the ucp. It is very complicated for them , we know that, to be certified or a eeo. A eeo. We need to find a way to get them involved in this. Aeo we need to find a way to get them involved even for. Processing. I will just add, we have been talking about infrastructure and processes and competitiveness and efficiencies. And we have not talked about Risk Management. I mean, not directly. Somehow, allen mentioned it. So, these aeo programs , it is Risk Management. If you open your information to the authorities, and we are confident, we feel good with your information, we know that you are a trusted trader and you have less than 1 of, lets say, red lettuce. In order for us to get a better Risk Management, we need more information. We need better information. So, in advance, it will be better for us to process the ship is. And it will be faster for you to cross the border. Any other questions . And then we will go back. A microphone is coming. It is on its way. Sam with the border trade alliance. Al, you go way back, and jorge is new, but you are all saying, trust me, the government. That is what youre saying. And we go to mexico city and we try to have meetings together with businesses. And they say we are going to invite said. They say no, we dont want anything to do with it. There is and issue in connection with what the government has access to. As far as i know, you dont have the best internet connections. You dont have the most secure systems in the world. And with what is going on in the international intrusion is this, i think that is something that 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 you are declaring things honestly. There is a difference. I would like you all to comment on that. Sure. So, mr. Of ala is talking about proprietary information. It has always been a challenge of private industry being reluctant to provide information to the government because of the sensitivity of that information. It is a valid and appropriate concern. But i think, in fairness, i would like to add for my former colleagues, that anywhere in the world, cbp, u. S. Government is probably the most aggressive in maintaining partnerships. There is something called a commercial operations advisory council. It is by faculty law. Every three months, you have an open forum that anyone in this room can sign into the website and hear the discussions and the dialogues about every initiative that is ongoing between the government and the industry at large. There is 20 elected members that represent the industry. And, they serve two year terms and they rotate and they can only send, serve two consecutive terms. They also have a trade symposium meeting. Which, is, im going to date myself. Its like, the most, the hottest ticket. It sells out faster than, you know, Whitney Houston used to sell out. But, they try to do one of the east coast and the west coast. Takes us all day to travel back and forth. Anywhere in the world. Have traveled most of the world. I attended the world customs organization. That represents 182 countries in the world. Yes . It is sometimes hampers what is referred to as the single window. Submit once, use multiple times. As mr. Art myers indicated, xray ones, send the images multiple times. It always comes down to, if we send it somewhere, all those parties trusted. Were going back to deputy secretary michael jackson, who wanted to do what is called a global trade exchange. And he couldnt get agreement in the room. Basically, it healed 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. But i can use it anywhere . 180 countries. Somehow, we cant seem to come to Something Like that amongst this community. He even said, lets resided at the world customs organization. All the data that can be then used to do advanced Data Analytics to kind of 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. I think is getting to a very important concept, which, typically, we will talk about efficiency and security at the border. We will talk about them being not mutually exclusive. But then there is this issue of trust. Do we actually trust the u. S. Or the Mexican Government to get things done . And, i like the fact that usmc a is codifying some of these things. So, Risk Management. Its a single window. Use of information technology. It seems to be binding the part into doing something. Obviously wont tell you, here is what you need to do to get that. We have to figure that out. But again, coming from my standpoint of civil society, we need to push those levers. We need to knock on those doors. We need to be persistent and asked the authorities, what happened with this or what happened to that . An example of this is, this Risk Management, is that we, as a coalition, started looking at 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. Binational group, a nonpartisan group, at that, what we have 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 by nationally, so we can share that information with the agencies. Thats a different story. But the agencies sometimes dont want to get the one to receive that information. I think we need to go in that direction. Where there is some binational organizations where we collect that information in a very objective way. We have the raw data. We process that data. And we show it to the binational community. Whether that is cargo, or that is, anybody who walks across the border. Because we really have, i know a lot of this is about trade. But, it is much more than trade. It is about people who want to cross that border every single day. The exchange that ambassador barcelona was talking about. The social exchange. s indicated educational exchange. So, we have this movement. And it is very, very important that we look at those aspects of the relationship as well. And the Risk Management is involved in that as well. For people crossing. Thank you. Were out of time. But i do want to let you ask a very quick question. We have two borders. Im just wondering if there are any successful strategies or procedures that are used with canadians that could be applied to the southern border . I will take a fair shot at that. Some of the things i talked about in terms of the way trains cross the border, we are basically replicating what happens between canada and the u. S. So, i dont know, i think its kind of across the board. We would make enormous progress if we could duplicate, replicate what happens in canada at the southern border. Now, we would, we want to go beyond that. Because are some things going on with the, with canada use of technology. But, if we could just get the parody with canada, we would be, we would be much better off. You mention the standardization, harmonization. We are aiming to have a trilateral window. So, at the same time, i mean, with one click, the city border authorities will have the exact same information, the exact same set of data set, to do the risk. We will just click once and we will be having the same information in doing risk analysis. And of course, i know that cap is also replicating a lot of things. In the order in the shared border, including, in terms of. We are definitely talking of course. If i could just give an example based on expounding your question about the northern border and particularly the rail lines, so that all my comments on, are not perceived as possibly aspirational. Is about as close to screen at speed that is out there. And talk about the ingenuity. So, you have large scale Imaging Equipment. Imaging is generally meaning x ray versus radiation portal monitors, which trying to detect radiation. You have large scale Imaging Equipment that is to move over a conveyance. So, the conveyance stays stationary, and you would drive this over. When we first started deploying these in 90s. We used to pull large trailers through six or seven stationary, almost like a carwash, pulling it through and you get these images. All of a sudden, the engineer said, on the northern border, why dont we keep the technology stationary . We will figure out the algorithms or whatever, and we will let the trains drive through . And then we will take the images, and we will 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 . So, now you have these conveyances driving through this technology, and people who maybe have never heard that term, screening at speed, thats a proof of concept. It is being done. It is just a matter of, you know, taking that and replicating that are modifying it into other areas. Thank you. With that, i would like to, just for fun, just for fun, want to ask, its a yes or no question. Is it feasible to close the border, its a threat before the couple of times. Yes or no . Just for fun. You could ask me if im a new york mets fan. I dont want to get that sensitive. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. At least in my. We never close the border. Even after 9 11, the border was never technically closed. Traffic was brought to a screeching halt, with the consequence undermining the u. S. Economic situation was catastrophic. But, the border was never closed. No. No. You heard it here. Thank you all for being here. And thank you for our panel for joining us. [ applause ] washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up wednesday morning, we discuss immigration and Border Security with Virginia Republican congressman, ben klein. And then, North Carolina democratic congressman, gk butterfield talks about the trump administrations plan to change how poverty is determined. And be sure to watch washington journal thursday and friday following the first democratic president ial candidates debate of the 2020 race. Join the conversation both mornings with the phone call, facebook comments, and tweets. Here is a look at what is coming up on cspan 3. Whistleblowers testify on capitol hill about exposing issues facing patients at va Healthcare Facilities. Then, texas senator john cornyn looks at ways the u. S. And mexico can strengthen economic competitiveness for both countries. After that, senator mark warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence committee, discusses chinas technological advances, and how they impact the United States. That is followed by a discussion on Government Spending with tom schad, the president of citizens against government waste. Whistleblowers recently testified at a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee hearing on the role they played in exposing issues facing patients at va Healthcare Facilities throughout the country