On August 14 & 15, 2018, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hosted their Trade Symposium in Atlanta. The Trade Symposium focused on diverse topics including the recent trade remedies, e-commerce, CBP priorities in recruiting and technology, free trade, forced labor, and other matters.
Speaking about the recent trade remedies, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan mentioned that CBP has “…been working very hard to explain how this works in practice in terms of changing a tariff or making a tariff rate quota, and putting that in place.” The Commissioner also spoke about CBP’s priorities in recruiting and retaining a quality workforce, and deploying new technologies to take on the challenges CBP faces. One such challenge Commissioner McAleenan spoke about was the increase in small shipments as the result of e-commerce, “We doubled small shipments from 300 million to 600 million parcels in one fiscal year.”
Several breakout sessions were held on the second day of the symposium, including a number of panel discussions and one-on-one meetings with the directors of CBP’s Centers of Excellence and Expertise.
CBP confirmed that a record 1,100 + members of the trade community attended from all over the world.
The CBP press release may be found here:
