CBP, Pharmaceutical Industry Meet to Discuss Pharma CEE
CBP’s Pharmaceutical, Health and Chemicals Center of Excellence and Expertise met with industry partners from government and private sector in August to discuss issues facing pharmaceutical, health and chemical industries such as disruptions to supply chains, CBP said. According to a news release, the CEEs “process participating importers within 10 CEE industries by account” and allow CBP to quickly adapt to industry changes. CBP said that CEE staff uses “industry knowledge to resolve holds and mitigate requests for information or CF-28s—oftentimes before the accounts know it themselves.” CEE Director Leon Hayward said these efforts reduce costs for the trade community and that the CEEs were “designed as the centerpiece of CBP’s 21st Century trade modernization efforts.” Other industry speakers called the CEEs “the nexus for engaging with the government on all questions for their imports.”
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Cynthia Whittenburg, Executive Director of Trade Policy and Programs for the Office of International Trade, said CEE “will continue this good work, particularly once CBP fully deploys the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). “We have a three-year finish line in view,” she said. “CBP is communicating this timeline for completing all core cargo processing in ACE.”
Industry leaders also discussed disruptions to supply chains, new products, processes, facilitation challenges and other importing issues. “We have taken the initial first steps to develop best practices for pharmaceutical imports,” said David Ulrich from AbbVie. “The CEE can advance that conversation to further CBP’s informed compliance efforts.”