News Release
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US Homeland Security Secretary Ridge
(Seated, Left) &
Irish Finance Minister
McCreevy (Seated, Right)
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No 56/04
April 22, 2004
EU WELCOMES SIGNATURE WITH US OF AGREEMENT EXPANDING CUSTOMS
COOPERATION TO TRADE SECURITY
Today’s signature in Washington , DC, of an
agreement extending the
EU/US Customs Agreement to include trade security co-operation has been warmly
welcomed by the European Commission.
The
new agreement, signed by the Irish Minister of Finance Charlie McCreevy on
behalf of the EU and US Secretary for Homeland Security Tom Ridge, will improve
cargo security on a reciprocal basis for both the EU and the US, while ensuring
equal treatment of US and EU ports and operators. The new agreement will provide
for the exchange of relevant information and best practices and the establishment
of common standards of risk assessment, inspection and screening methods.
"This is an important step forward: together, the EU and the US will
be in a position to deliver a major contribution to ensuring that trade can take
place in a secure environment on the basis of reciprocity," said European
Commissioner for
Customs
Frits Bolkestein.
The agreement, which the EU Commission has negotiated with the US on behalf
of the European Union, complements US initiatives launched after the attacks of
September
11, 2001 to integrate security checks in normal customs controls before goods
leave a country. The reciprocal agreement also covers the security of cargo containers
from all locations that are imported into, transhipped through or transit the
EU and the US.
The Commission fully shares US concerns about improving cargo security and
considers that the most effective means to meet these concerns is by co-operation
at EU level with the US. The new agreement is based on the principle that substantially
greater security of legitimate trade can be achieved through a system where the
customs authority of the importing country works collaboratively with customs
authorities involved in earlier parts of the supply chain to use timely information
and inspection technology to target and screen high-risk containers before they
are shipped from their ports or places of loading or transhipment.
The new agreement prevents differential treatment of EU Member States and
trade diversion within the EU. The agreement will also ensure that legitimate
transatlantic trade is not hindered by the increased security arrangements and
that control standards are equal for US and EC operators.
The new agreement expands the existing Agreement between the EU and the US
on Customs Co-operation and Mutual Assistance in customs matters (CCMA), which
was signed on 28 May 1997. While the 1997 Agreement focussed on classical customs
co-operation, the expanded Agreement covers also co-operation in securing the
logistical chain in international trade.
The new agreement establishes a working group that will elaborate the necessary
operational elements of expanded co-operation (see
Annex). The EC-US Joint Customs Co-operation Committee, meeting after the
signing ceremony, decided to launch the working groups officially and to have
the first meeting of customs experts from the US
, EU Member States and the Commission in early May 2004.
The EU’s Council of Ministers authorised the Commission to negotiate with
the US on transport security co-operation on 18th March 2003.
The agreement was initialled by the European Commission’s Taxation and Customs
Union Director General Robert Verrue and US Ambassador to the EU Rockwell Schnabel
on 18th November 2003 (see IP/03/1565:
Washington Delegation News Release 70 of 2003). The
Council adopted by unanimity on 30th March 2004 the decision which
enabled formal conclusion of the agreement on 22nd April 2004.
For further information go to :
http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/customs/
information_notes/containers_en.htm
Annex to the Agreement between
the European Community and the United States of America on intensifying and
broadening the CMAA to include co-operation on Container Security and Related
Matters
The Working Group created under Paragraph 5 of the Agreement between the
European Community and the United States of America on intensifying and broadening
the CMAA to include co-operation on Container Security and Related Matters will
examine and make recommendations on issues including, but not limited to, the
following areas of co-operation between US Customs and Border Protection and Customs
authorities in the European Community with a view to ensuring that general customs
controls of international trade take due account of security concerns:
a. defining minimum standards, in particular in view of
participating in
CSI [Container Security Initiative], and recommending methods by which those
standards may be met;
b. identifying and broadening the application of best practices
concerning security controls of international trade, especially those developed
under CSI;
c. defining and establishing standards to the greatest extent
practicable for the information required to identify high-risk shipments imported
into, transhipped through, or transiting the United States and the European Community;
d. improving and establishing standards to the greatest
extent practicable for targeting and screening such high-risk shipments, to include
information exchange, the use of automated targeting systems and the development
of minimum standards for inspection technologies and screening methodologies;
e. improving and establishing standards to the greatest
extent practicable for industry partnership-programs designed to improve supply
chain security and facilitate the movement of legitimate trade;
f. identifying any regulatory or legislative
changes that would be necessary to implement the recommendations of the Working
Group; and
g. considering the type of documents and measures further
implementing the intensified and broadened customs co-operation on the issues
set out in this Annex.
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Press Contacts:
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Anthony Gooch
202-862-9523
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Maeve O'Beirne
202-862-9549
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