As you may know, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Deputy Commissioner David V. Aguilar recently announced the expansion of the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE), which will create six new centers in 2013 for the Agriculture & Prepared Products, Apparel, Footwear & Textiles, Base Metals, Consumer Products & Mass Merchandising, Industrial & Manufacturing Materials and Machinery industries. One of the six new centers responsible for Agriculture & Prepared Products is Miami.
I’m sending this announcement out to the perishables committee, as this selection, which the committee has strongly supported over the last year, is critical for helping promote PortMiami as the “Perishables Gateway of the Americas” and furthers our efforts to highlight the advantages of using PortMiami as the preferred perishables entry point for the SE and US East Coast. With our advantages of being the closest East Coast port to the winter fruit and vegetable producers in Central and South America, the announcement of this selection by CBP helps solidify our role as the natural gateway for perishables and highlights the bilingual expertise of our CBP experts here in Miami.
We are honored that Washington has recognized what we have known for years, Miami is the natural gateway for perishables, and is destined to become even more of a hub for both the transshipment and importation of perishables. We hope you share this news with your executives, staff and customers. This designation will also be highlighted in our future “Trade Miami” outreach efforts. For more information, please read on and visit the CBP website listed below: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/ cgov/trade/trade_transformation/indus try_int/cee_overview.ctt/cee_overview.pdf
The Centers for Excellence and Expertise enable CBP to provide tailored support to unique trading environments,” said Deputy Commissioner David V. Aguilar. “This service in turn allows for increased business processing efficiencies which will ultimately speed the facilitation of cross border commerce.”
THE CENTERS THAT ARE TO BE ESTABLISHED IN FY 2013 ARE:
1. Agriculture & Prepared Products: Miami
2. Apparel, Footwear & Textiles: San Francisco
3. Base Metals: Chicago
4. Consumer Products & Mass Merchandising: Atlanta
5. Industrial & Manufacturing Materials: Buffalo 6. Machinery: Laredo
These virtual centers will provide onestop processing to lower the Trade’s cost of business, provide greater consistency and predictability and enhance CBP enforcement efforts. The Centers represent CBP’s expanded focus on “Trade in the 21st Century,” transforming customs procedures to align with modern business. The CEEs will also serve as resources to the broader trade community and to CBP’s U.S. government partners. The current Centers are Electronics in Long Beach; Pharmaceuticals, Health & Chemicals in New York City; Automotive & Aerospace in Detroit; and Petroleum, Natural Gas & Minerals in Houston.
