New cottage industry: Helping shippers qualify for C-TPAT
Securing cargo containers is a massive — and lucrative — undertaking, and more and more companies want to participate, but you should see the paper work involved; there is thus a new industry emerging, one aiming to help large and small companies apply for DHS C-TPAT
The U.S. is putting emphasis and resources on developing a comprehensive container security program, and many companies, large and small, want to participate in it. The long wait times, the burdensome paperwork, and other such bureaucratic hassles have led many of these companies to hire outside consultants to help them apply to the program.”
The terms of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) say that companies which volunteer to improve the security of their shipping operations will face inspection of fewer of their containers when these containers arrive in U.S. ports. Entering the program is not easy, though, hence the need for outside consulting. “There is a whole cottage industry of lobbyists saying “hire us and we’ll get you C-TPAT approval,’” said Scotty Greenwood, executive director of the Canadian American Business Council and managing director of trade and international affairs at Washington, D.C.-based McKenna, Long, and Aldridge. “You shouldn’t have to hire a lobbyist to get basic things done.”
McKenna Long does not specialize in C-TPAT, but other companies do. Among these companies: Geneva, Switzerland-based SGS; San Diego, California-based Zisser Group; Memphis, Tennessee-based-based FedEx Trade Networks; and Washington, D.C.-based Sandler, Travis, and Rosenburg.
