OFFICE OF STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect. OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect. Contents

Foreword ...... 1 OT Strategy 2025 Executive Summary ...... 2 Strategic Context ...... 3 Trade Mission ...... 3 Vision and Guiding Principles ...... 4

Strategic Goals

Goal 1: Efficient ...... 5 Goal 2: Effective Risk-Based Enforcement ...... 6 Goal 3: Innovative and Sustainable E-commerce ...... 7 Goal 4: Trade Operational Expertise ...... 8 Goal 5: Workforce Skills and Capabilities ...... 9

Conclusion

Measuring and Achieving Success ...... 10

CBP Publication No. 1342-1220 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

Foreword

Every day, the men and women who support the trade mission of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilitate the flow of legitimate trade, enforce U.S. trade laws and regulations to create a level playing field for American , and protect the economy and the public from unsafe and unfair practices.

Trade remains a vital lifeline to the American economy and people. Despite new challenges and new technologies that rapidly change how we conduct trade, our mission remains the same. We will continue to evolve and to adapt to the trade environment developing innovative solutions to meet the future of trade head-on.

It is an honor to serve and to lead the Office of Trade and to continue the journey we are taking together to create a world in which trade is streamlined, safe, and secure. I look forward to achieving the goals set out in this new OT Strategy 2025. Brenda B. Smith Executive Assistant Commissioner U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Trade

1 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

OT Strategy 2025 Executive Summary

A Strategy to Facilitate Trade, Enforce Through this Strategy, OT embraces the challenge of U.S. Laws, and Protect the American e-commerce and how the explosion in the number of Economy and Consumers small direct-to-consumer is fundamentally changing the game for trade facilitation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) collects enforcement. Additionally, the Strategy emphasizes a the second largest revenue amount for the U.S. renewed commitment to our workforce to provide the government, and the Office of Trade (OT) is the training, opportunities, and work environment they architect of the most robust customs system in the need to effectively meet the needs of the stakeholders world. We facilitate legitimate trade, enforce U.S. they support. laws, and protect the American economy as well as consumer health and safety. Collaborating with This Strategy identifies five primary goals: industry and government partners, we create a fair, competitive, and safe trade environment, and we 1. Efficient Trade Facilitation: Streamline enforce U.S. trade laws to protect national economic administrative processes to increase efficiency, security. Our expertise in the trade community allows lower cost, and reduce processing times to us to lead the development of streamlined and ensure compliance with trade laws and efficient processes that provide certainty for Administration policy goals. legitimate importers, while combating transnational crime. 2. Effective Risk-Based Enforcement: Support a level trade playing field through consequence In a global environment of increased international delivery, risk-based analysis, and an trade flows, especially shifting patterns related to e- intelligence-driven enforcement approach. commerce, and increased public awareness of the importance and impacts of national trade policies, 3. Secure and Sustainable E-commerce: Create OT’s mission is becoming ever more important and new paradigm for trade facilitation and visible. The nation and our stakeholders in the private enforcement in light of unprecedented growth and public sectors need a champion to lead the smooth in e-commerce. implementation of trade policy initiatives, an advocate to promote and address the needs of legitimate 4. Trade Operational Expertise: Strengthen businesses, a guardian against malicious or unsafe OT’s presence among national economic and trade practices and products, and a partner in broader trade policy makers and industry efforts to secure and manage the nation’s borders. stakeholders. CBP’s Enduring Priority, “Facilitate Lawful Trade and Protect Revenue” served as a guide in the 5. Workforce Skills and Capabilities: Prepare development of the updated OT the workforce with new skills and capabilities Strategy 2025. while expanding sources of talent for new hires. This OT Strategy 2025 lays out OT’s vision and direction to accomplish its challenging and diverse We are excited to embark on this journey, working missions and to address the needs of its critical closely with our internal and external partners and internal and external stakeholders. It presents a bold stakeholders to protect our country’s economic vision to improve the experience of the legitimate interests and the public’s safety while continuously trade community while improving CBP’s ability to improving the fundamental flow of goods and identify and interdict illegitimate and unsafe goods. services.

2 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

Strategic Context

Trade Mission intelligence-driven enforcement decisions, monitoring and tracking Priority Trade Issues CBP is responsible for making sure that cross- (PTIs), and employing and developing a world- border trade complies with U.S. trade laws and class workforce that delivers its mission. promotes fair, secure, and safe competition. CBP works to enable legitimate trade, contribute to PTIs continue to represent high-risk areas that can American economic prosperity, and protect harm the U.S. economy, threaten the health and against risks to public health and safety. CBP safety of the American people, or result in administers U.S. trade laws that: revenue loss. However, new risks and trends that drive the need for change have emerged. E- • Facilitate efficient trade for U.S. businesses commerce has become efficient, cost-effective, and consumers and a dominant force in daily U.S. trade. Online • Protect consumers from unsafe products and marketplaces and small packages imported under materials the de minimis threshold provide little visibility • Protect U.S. businesses from unfair regarding package content and origin to CBP and trade practices OT, complicating trade enforcement and security • Generate the second largest revenue stream screening. for the U.S. government OT Strategy 2020 created a path forward to The Office of Trade leads the trade mission on enhance the agency’s security posture, modernize behalf of CBP by managing national programs import/ processes, improve trade that facilitate trillions of dollars of trade and intelligence, and maximize efficiencies. OT translate the regulations of 49 partner government Strategy 2025 builds and adapts to new internal agencies into enforceable trade guidance, while and external influences with actionable strategic facilitating compliance. OT coordinates with goals and a framework to improve the overall trade industry and incorporates feedback on key trade mission. trade issues, conducts audits and other trade- related enforcement activities, and supports field- based interventions conducted at ports of entry in the U.S. and overseas.

Changing Landscape Trade is vital to U.S. economic growth and security. Over the past decade, global trade has become increasingly complex as trade volumes continue to grow and the number of participants and individual transactions has grown exponentially (largely due to e-commerce). As the landscape has shifted, OT has developed initiatives to modernize processes, protect intellectual property rights, and improve engagement with the trade community.

OT is at the nexus for trade engagements, collecting and analyzing data to make

3 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

Vision and Guiding Principles

A Bold Vision of Collaboration to Achieve Shared Goals In this vision: • Importers effortlessly convey the information is a critical component of the most useful to CBP to make enforcement nation’s economy. Beyond simply providing goods decisions, facilitated by improved methods to that our domestic industry and consumers need and interact with, and obtain guidance from CBP. want, trade stimulates the economy. Each $1 increase • Enforcement activities focus on highest-risk in international trade provides approximately shipments, increasing CBP productivity and the $2 increase in gross domestic product (GDP). This overall speed of clearance, while also supporting GDP increase reflects new jobs, improved economic overall CBP security mission needs. security for families, and new opportunities for the • Consumers trust that e-commerce shipments (and country. all shipments) are safe and genuine. •Trade policy decisions are informed by Extensive trade comes with challenges. Foreign operational insight and experience, surgically competitors may unfairly target U.S. economic targeting the most efficient action to achieve the interests, and importers may knowingly or policy goal. unknowingly import goods that are not safe or not what they are purported to be. With the dramatic To achieve this vision, the following guiding increase in direct-to-consumer shipments, the principles are an essential part of implementing each challenges of enforcing policies and protecting goal: consumers while allowing rapid delivery of goods increase. • Smart use of data and analytics to assess trade compliance risks as a foundation for PTI and Through close, ongoing collaboration with the trade, industry sector plans; OT aims to build a system that allows innovation to • A commitment to modernization and adaptability flourish and to modernize across policy, regulatory, to improve trade processes and the U.S. and statutory areas that will position CBP for the future economy; of trade while creating a process that is more • Continuous improvements to OT’s outreach to streamlined, secure, collaborative, and digital from government and private sector stakeholders to end-to-end. facilitate understanding, decision-making, and efficiency; and OT envisions a world where data-driven decisions • A commitment to our workforce, recognizing that replace outdated methods. To do that, we need new their skills and dedication are the foundation of all technologies, new ways of sharing data within and activities in this strategy. outside the government, and the ability to take enforcement actions against new and emerging threats.

4 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

GOAL 1 Efficient Trade Facilitation

Streamline administrative processes to increase efficiency, lower cost, and reduce processing times to ensure compliance with trade laws and Administration policy goals

Vision Context Desired Outcomes Trading is streamlined and OT applies world-class expertise to • Decline in administrative intuitive – the burdensome design trade processes and policies costs processes of the past are gone. that minimize cost and provide • Increased integration with Integrated data platforms, new certainty, transparency, and private sector digital supply chains and updated trade agreements predictability to members of the • Increased transparency and and policies, and an trade community. OT achieves this data sharing account-based system pave the through the issuance of CBP • Increased compliance and way for the future. regulations, legally binding rulings security and decisions, informed Objectives compliance publications, and Key Initiatives • Adopt digital and structured programs for external • Automated Commercial technological innovations to training and outreach on Environment (ACE) “Single reduce trade compliance international trade laws and CBP Window” enhancements burden regulations. Both CBP and the • Foster the adoption of CBP IT • Improve customer experience trade community benefit when digital enterprises and across trade interactions clear and accurate data speeds technological innovations • Deploy robotic process • Simplify trade interactions facilitation of legitimate trade automation through integrated account while enabling CBP to focus on management and billing unknown or risky importers. OT • Pursue the 21st Century applies expertise, technology, and The current system, while Customs Framework to automation to create streamlined increasingly automated, still modernize and enhance trade and efficient processes to facilitate depends on transaction-based processes while protecting the global exchange of safe and processing and some redundant revenue and safeguarding the legitimate goods. data entries, which creates extra economy work for importers and impairs the enterprise-wide view of trade that CBP needs.

5 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

GOAL 2 Effective Risk-Based Enforcement

Support a level trade playing field through consequence delivery, risk-based analysis, and an intelligence-driven enforcement approach

Vision Context Desired Outcomes Smart use of data, consequence OT enforces trade laws by • Every shipment has the data delivery, and a new risk targeting and penalizing needed for screening and an framework leads to early lawbreakers through monetary evaluated risk level; information identification, deterrence, and penalties and legal action. Unfair, aggregated for real-time account disruptions of potential trade unsafe, or illicit trade practice is risk profiles violations without interfering not tolerated within U.S. supply • CBP has a spectrum of with legitimate trade. chains. OT works closely with the interventions tailored to varying Office of Field Operations (OFO) risk profiles and supports national • Predictable trade violations are Objectives identified prior to shipment; enforcement responses through • Rigorously assess trade interventions are executed effective targeting of goods compliance risks through beyond U.S. borders when crossing the border as well as analytics and intelligence warranted strict, swift punitive actions as a foundation for PTI and • CBP and commercial information against companies participating in is available to CBP trade industry sector plans predatory trade practices. personnel for best risk-based • Build analytical and data decision-making management capabilities Through coordination with necessary to identify Key Initiatives international partners and other highest risk transactions • Consequence delivery U.S. government agencies, OT and entities • Intelligent enforcement to directs the enforcement of update targeting systems and • Deploy tailored intellectual property rights (IPR), enhanced bonding interventions to address the identification of risks to detect • Advanced Trade Analytics identified risks, and limit and prevent the importation of Platform (ATAP) development interventions against contaminated agricultural or food and improvement compliant trade activity products, and the enforcement of • Implement “federated view” to • Implement risk-based ensure CBP has an integrated agreement eligibility. bonding to reduce USG awareness of activities at all

financial exposure levels OT uses a risk-based audit The audit program is also used to program supporting the transition respond to allegations of to a paperless, digital commercial fraud and to conduct environment, which will reduce corporate reviews of internal the churn and create less controls to ensure importers administrative work for our comply with trade laws and stakeholders. regulations.

6 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

GOAL 3 Innovative and Sustainable E-commerce

Create new paradigm for trade facilitation and enforcement in light of unprecedented growth in e-commerce

Vision Context Desired Outcomes CBP leads the development of CBP faces three disruptive trends • OT regularly collects advance new global models for as it seeks to balance its mission data from new supply chain e-commerce trade enforcement to facilitate trade with the parties and analyzes information to collect and protect revenue, enforcement of regulations that to enhance enforcement efforts • OT applies e-commerce strategy enforce trade remedies, protect American consumers and to current trade models and generate economic prosperity, the economy. A sharp increase in integrates it into trade legislation and instill confidence that the e-commerce from a rise in online products consumers purchase marketplaces allows Key Initiatives online are safe and genuine. non-U.S.-based parties to more • Implement effective easily sell and ship small consequence delivery based on the unique provisions for low packages to U.S. consumers. The Objectives value shipments increase in the de minimis • Create new or tailor existing • Develop e-commerce standards threshold in 2016 also increased targeting and enforcement and best practices and educate the value and number of actions to low-value, community shipments that are not subject to high-volume shipments • Expand Sec. 321 Data pilot full ACE reporting. Finally, postal • Streamline IPR enforcement • Improve data sharing and agreements reduce the cost of actions to adapt to new data reporting requirements postal (vs. express) shipping, e-commerce risks from non-traditional parties driving the small package volume to effectively vet and target to postal services, which tend to noncompliance In light of these changes, the provide less shipping information • Build upon existing networks Office of Trade must focus on than express carriers. These to enhance partnerships with enhancing the capabilities needed trends have led to the dramatic domestic and international to effectively manage e-commerce increase in low-value shipments stakeholders that address and will pursue the OT Strategy with limited customs visibility. small parcel shipments 2025 objectives to augment CBP’s E-Commerce Strategy, which is located on CBP.gov.

7 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

GOAL 4 Trade Operational Expertise

Strengthen OT’s presence among national economic and trade policy makers and industry stakeholders to leverage industry practices, legal requirements, and government capabilities

lead the development of Vision Desired Outcomes streamlined and efficient OT’s knowledge of supply • OT is consistently involved in processes that provide certainty chains informs decision- priority trade conversations for legitimate importers, while making at the highest levels. with executive, legislative, and combating transnational crime. industry policy leaders OT brings unique insight from Key Initiatives Objectives managing nationwide programs • Lead the shaping of global • Proactively engage that facilitate trillions of dollars trade standards economic and trade policy of in trade, conducting audits and • Expand strategic partnerships stakeholders and influencers other trade-related enforcement • Communication, engagement, on topics at the intersection activities, and translating the and outreach with of trade policy and regulations of 49 partner intergovernmental partners operational implementation government agencies into and trade industry partners • Incorporate analytical enforceable trade guidance, while insights and capabilities to facilitating stakeholder provide an assessment of compliance. trade policy options This operational expertise is Context coupled with forward-looking views that provide critical OT serves as CBP’s primary information to help policy makers liaison to the executive and in CBP, the Administration, and legislative branches on Congress as they make decisions trade-related issues. OT’s to improve cross-border trade. expertise in the trade community allows OT to OT is committed to doing more to enable this expertise to support effective policy decision-making.

8 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

GOAL 5 Workforce Skills and Capabilities

Prepare the trade workforce with new skills and capabilities while expanding sources of talent for new hires

Vision Context Desired Outcomes OT personnel have the The OT workforce consists of • OT critical roles are fully staffed, technological and analytical people with diverse and well trained, and developed skills and support they need to specialized skills, often through well-defined career accomplish our mission. representing unique application of paths • Human capital strategy expertise in law, auditing, risk Employees operate in a established, linking needed collaborative, innovative, and analysis, and communications. employee capabilities with strategic environment. OT OT must strive to maintain and integrated recruiting and attracts and retains the highest develop the workforce needed to retention plan caliber trade-professionals. accomplish the Office’s critical • OT is ranked in the top quartile role in protecting the integrity of of places to work in the federal Objectives our trade laws and markets, government • Formalize progression for collecting over $80 billion in • Trade retention exceeds federal career paths trade-related revenue, and government average across • Expand expertise improving consumer safety. tenure levels development and training Key Initiatives programs OT personnel currently represent • Strategic Staffing Pillar • Foster a flexible work-life less than two percent of the total (recruitment, direct hire, balance CBP workforce. However, their relocation, incentives) • Expand sources of talent for impacts and contributions are far • Mission support system and new hires and use all hiring reaching as experts in the legal, programs for improved authorities financial, procedural, and policy recruitment and applicant • Grow data analytics skills aspects of trade. OT must processing and capabilities to adapt to continue to devote the time and • Build Trade and Cargo Academy the changing trade resources required to continue to facility; curriculum redesign, environment develop such expertise. establishment of knowledge management approach

9 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.

Measuring and Achieving Success

Measuring Success OT will continuously monitor and assess our In order to achieve the vision and outcomes in this workforce capabilities and gaps as we look to build strategy, we established key performance measures that and strengthen our people and organization. we will track and monitor to verify progress and identify challenges. Additionally, OT will monitor e-commerce initiatives and develop facilitation and enforcement measures. Goals and strategic initiatives will be closely tied to and operationalized by the relevant Office of Trade To ensure the strategy remains a focal point program areas to maintain accountability and throughout its lifetime, it will be included in all consistency. annual planning guidance. OT leadership will stand ready to help and support where necessary. OT will continue to work with our partners to collect, analyze, and track data to measure progress on The Office of Trade is the architect of the most robust facilitation and enforcement efforts. customs system in the world. We must continue to adapt and evolve in a changing trade environment to We will measure our engagement with stakeholders deliver on our mission. Implementing this strategy is a and hold ourselves accountable for informing collaborative effort that will accomplish our vision to decision-makers across the public and private sectors make trade streamlined, safe, and secure. on trade-related matters.

10 OFFICE OF TRADE STRATEGY 2025 | Facilitate. Enforce. Protect.