U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham and Mu Xinsheng, minister of customs for the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, recently signed an agreement to strengthen enforcement of intellectual property rights laws.

    The agreement provides for exchanges of seizure information on counterfeit goods between customs staff of the two nations designed to improve intellectual property rights enforcement. CBP and China Customs have pledged to increase visits to each other’s offices and ports by both policy and operational staff engaged in intellectual property rights enforcement.

    This agreement was reached coinciding with the second meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, a meeting with Chinese officials and leaders of multiple federal agencies to review economic development. Presidents Bush and Hu Jintao of the People’s Republic of China launched the dialogue on these matters in September 2006.

    “I am very pleased that CBP will have the opportunity to work hand in hand with China Customs in combating illegal trade in counterfeit and pirated goods,” said CBP Commissioner W. Ralph Basham. “This memorandum of cooperation on intellectual property rights, which will benefit both our economies, represents an important step in working with China Customs to target counterfeit and pirated goods. I appreciate Minister Mu’s strong support of this important work and look forward to working closely with him on this endeavor.”

    The memorandum calls for an increase in the sharing of intellectual property rights enforcement practices between CBP and China Customs. Intellectual property rights laws protect owners of such items as copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade secrets from the unauthorized use of their brands or original works.

    Officials have agreed to exchange information on significant intellectual property rights seizures each quarter in order to track violators and conduct enforcement actions. The country receiving information will have 90 days to report to the providing country on enforcement actions resulting from this disclosure of information.

    U.S. and Chinese Customs officials have pledged to exchange counterfeit and pirated goods seizure statistics every six months for goods originating in or destined for the other country. The statistics exchange will describe the number of seizures, quantity and value of goods, description and/or Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification of the commodities, mode of transportation and the main ports of import and export for the goods in the two countries.

    The agreement follows an increase of intellectual property rights seizures for the fiscal year 2006. CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, two agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, made 14,675 seizures of counterfeit goods worth more than $155 million in domestic value in fiscal year 2006. This represents an 83 percent increase in the number of seizures from fiscal year 2005 and a 67 percent increase in the value of those seizures for the same period.

    As the primary agency responsible for U.S. border enforcement, CBP is a key player in intellectual property rights enforcement. To combat intellectual property rights theft, CBP has diversified its enforcement to include new approaches that complement traditional techniques focused on identifying and seizing counterfeit and pirated goods at U.S. borders. The agency has developed innovative methods such as risk modeling to identify high-risk shipments for border inspection, and expanded its efforts beyond border seizures by conducting intellectual property rights audits of importers. In addition, CBP works with trademark and copyright owners to protect intellectual property rights at the border, and with foreign governments and international organizations to enhance customs enforcement internationally.

Container Security Initiative

    The Container Security Initiative is CBP’s effort to establish working bilateral partnerships with foreign authorities to identify high-risk cargo containers originating at ports throughout the world before they are loaded on vessels destined for the United States.

    CBP’s goal is to have 58 operational CSI ports by the end of fiscal year 2007. At that time, more than 90 percent of all transatlantic and transpacific cargo imported into the United States will be subjected to prescreening.

    Under CSI, high-risk containers receive security inspections, including X-ray scan and radiation scan before being loaded on board vessels destined for the United States. Once high-risk containers are inspected at CSI ports, they are not ordinarily inspected again upon arrival at the U.S. seaport. This means that the containers inspected at CSI ports actually move faster, more predictably and efficiently through U.S. seaports.

Core elements

    The four core elements of CSI are:

    •Identify high-risk containers.

    •Prescreen and evaluate containers before they are shipped.

    •Use technology to prescreen high-risk containers to ensure that screening can be done rapidly without slowing down the movement of trade.

    •Use smarter, more secure containers, to identify containers that have been tampered with during transit.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation’s borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Passport update

    The U.S. Departments of State and Homeland Security announced that U.S. citizens traveling to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda who have applied for but not yet received passports can temporarily enter and depart from the United States by air with a government-issued photo identification and Department of State official proof of application for a passport through Sept. 30, 2007. The federal government is making this accommodation for air travel because of longer-than-expected processing times for passport applications in the face of record-breaking demand.

    The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) was mandated by Congress in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to strengthen border security and facilitate entry into the United States for citizens and legitimate international visitors. WHTI requirements for air travel took effect on Jan. 23, 2007.

    Adults who have applied for but not yet received a passport should present government-issued photo identification and an official proof of application from the U.S. Department of State. Children under the age of 16 traveling with their parents or legal guardian will be permitted to travel with the child’s proof of application. Travelers who have not applied for a passport should not expect to be accommodated. U.S. citizens with pending passport applications can obtain proof of application at U.S. Dept. of State web site.

    This accommodation does not affect entry requirements to other countries. Americans traveling to a country that requires passports must still present those documents.

    As early as January 2008, the departments will begin to implement WHTI at land and sea ports of entry.