USCIB participated in recent meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Third Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM3) in Lima, Peru. Senior Director for Customs and Trade Facilitation Megan Giblin represented USCIB, serving as moderator or panelist during various customs and trade facilitation meetings and workshops from August 12 to 18. Giblin was a panelist in the Sub-Committee on Customs Procedures (SCCP) APEC Customs-Business Dialogue (ACBD) and moderated a panel during the SCCP Workshop: “Promoting MSME Engagement in E-Commerce on Regulatory Procedures for Small, Low-Value Shipments”. 

The SCCP ACBD session focused on supply chain digitalization. Giblin’s remarks highlighted the various US federal agency engagement models on Customs and Trade Facilitation (TF) matters, including, but not limited to, the Commercial Operational Advisory Committee (COAC), Trade Support Network (TSN), and the International Trade Administration Committees (ITACs), and the critical need for dialogue between customs and stakeholders on digitalization and systems development.

Giblin also gave a presentation during the plenary of the Subcommittee on Customs Procedures (SCCP) to APEC economy customs representatives on trusted partnership between customs and trade stakeholders to achieve better trade facilitation and trade enforcement for a more trusted dialogue and engagement. The presentation also focused on the former SCCP virtual working group, which Giblin co-chaired along with the government of New Zealand, absorbed by the Alliance for Supply Chain Connectivity (A2C2).

The A2C2 meeting included a robust SCCP Chair report on discussions during SCCP and a report on ACBD by the deputy chair. There was also a series of panels on moving the informal economy to the formal economy. The event closed with a dialogue on what industry was interested in seeing for the A2C2. USCIB led several interventions regarding 2017 changes as well as Harmonized System (HS) implementation with a focus on HS 2028 implementation and economy processes and procedures, and supported interventions and suggested possible areas of collaboration regarding, for example, Confidential Business Information (CBI) in the chemical space.

The SCCP Workshop, “Promoting MSME Engagement in E-Commerce on Regulatory Procedures for Small, Low-Value Shipments,” was held on August 18. This event was linked to the US-driven project and draft report on “Low-Value Shipments,” for which USCIB provided inputs via dialogue with a research team. Giblin moderated the revenue and risk management panel, which included speakers from Chile Customs, Chinese Taipei, and DHL. 

APEC is an important forum for customs and trade facilitation. During the meetings, Giblin also participated in other events and side meetings.  SOM 3 2024 illustrated the importance of women in customs and trusted collaboration with the private sector.  

“USCIB commends the close collaboration for SOM3 events of the US Customs and Border Protection, US Department of Commerce, and Office of the US Trade Representative delegates and for the tremendous work done in Lima,” said Giblin. “We also appreciate Peru’s MINCETUR and SUNAT for hosting such valuable customs and TF meetings. While there are more Peru host year events to come, we look forward to Korea’s host year in 2025.”  

On June 25, the USCIB DC office hosted a joint OECD – Business at OECD (BIAC) – USCIB Anti-Illicit Trade discussion around the work policy program of the OECD Working Party on Countering Illicit Trade (WP-CIT), where its work in quantifying, characterizing, and increasing understanding of emerging challenges in illicit trade through evidence-based research helps industry address those challenges in a strategic, coordinated, and more effective manner.

During the USCIB and BIAC member only discussion we talked about critical need for public private partnerships (PPPs) in this space and discussed priority topics of both the USCIB Anti-Illicit Trade Committee (AITC) as well as BIAC Anti-Illicit Trade Expert Group (AITEG) including transparency for online marketplaces, investor funded IP litigation, and Free Trade Zones. This was a great opportunity to build on previous in-person meetings during OECD staff visits to Washington, DC.

USCIB Senior Director of Customs and Trade Facilitation Megan Giblin was joined in-person by OECD’s Piotr Stryszowski and Leonor Sanhueza, the incoming USCIB AITC Chair Jennifer Lane, USCIB advisor and BIAC AITEG Chair David Luna, and USCIB member company delegates. We were joined remotely by BIAC’s AITEG leads Emma Brierley and Minami Kakuda, BIAC AITEG Co-Vice Chair Susan Wilson, and other USCIB and/or BIAC members.

On April 23, USCIB hosted a successful Customs and Trade Facilitation Committee Meeting in Chicago, followed by a roundtable event. The in-person only roundtable allowed participants to meet with local HQ United States government representatives and learn about the International Trade Administrations (ITA) Office of Trade Agreements Negotiations and Compliance (TANC) at the US Department of Commerce (DOC).  

The Midwest committee meeting was hosted by Committee Chair Michelle Welsh at Google offices. During the meeting, the Committee discussed many priority topics, recent events, and new developments. In addition, Ms. Ashlyn Holeyfield Customs Lead at the US DOC, ITA, TANC. During the post-meeting roundtable, participants heard from Ashlyn Holeyfield about the various ways TANC engages on issues in bilateral engagements, at the multilateral level, and in other regional forums.

“We were thrilled to have Ms. Holeyfield join us in Chicago for these meetings. The roundtable event was a great opportunity for our Midwest based Committee members to meet with local HQ USG representatives in the Chicago area and learn more about TANC and the information needed to raise specific trade concerns for effective engagement and resolution,” said Megan Giblin, USCIB Senior Director for Customs and Trade Facilitation.