Trade Partnerships Against Terrorism

The U.S. Customs Service issued a Notice stating that it has introduced the Trade Partnerships Against Terrorism (TPAT) initiative. The goal is to engage the trade community (including exporters, importers, and carriers) in a cooperative relationship to fight terrorism by exchanging anti-terrorism ideas, concepts, and information. Those in the business community should review their entire logistics chain and incorporate sound security principles to reduce their exposure to product and conveyance tampering. Failure to do so will necessitate Customs to classify the importer or carrier into an ‘unknown category’ resulting in higher scrutiny, increased reviews and audits, added examinations, requests for more information, and no guarantee of processing times. Source: Holland & Knight LLP