Border Interagency Executive Council Issues First Report Card

Trade Update • FEBRUARY 18, 2021

The Border Interagency Executive Council recently issued its first Report Card highlighting the interagency working group’s accomplishments since it was established in February 2014.

What Is the BIEC?

The BIEC, an executive advisory board and decision-making body, was created by an Obama-era Executive Order “Streamlining the Export/Import Process for America’s Businesses.”

Chaired by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the aim of the BIEC is “to enhance coordination across federal agencies with border management authority, measurably improve supply chain processes, and identify illicit and noncompliant shipments.”

As well as improving coordination across the more than 50 U.S. federal agencies with import and export responsibilities, the BIEC provides a forum for interagency collaboration and “driving ‘One-U.S.-Government’ results against a backdrop of accelerated change in the global trade environment.”

The U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of State, and the Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law Development Program consider the BIEC and its mechanisms “an international best practice for interagency border coordination.”

Highlights

The BIEC’s Priority Initiatives and Accomplishments include:

Automated Commercial Environment: Integrated business and regulatory requirements for 49 Partner Government Agencies; eliminated 269 PGA paper documents; achieved 69 % ACE user satisfaction in calendar year 2021; and saved the trade industry 61% more in FY 2021 than the previous year.

Global Business Identifier: Evaluated eight alternative entity identifiers; received six formal letters of support from BIEC PGAs. Received 17 recommendations from the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee one U.S. Government (1USG) Working Group; implemented seven of those recommendations; identified 25 U.S. government entity identification systems that may be streamlined by the GBI based on common data attributes collected.

Single Window Sustainment: Conducted 15 Planned Pay-As-You-Go sessions; received 144 requests for development through the Planned PAYGO process; and completed technical development for 48 development requests.

General BIEC Initiatives: Proposed six potential initiatives at the 2014 BIEC priorities table-top exercise, and another 18 recommendations at the 2019 BIEC misclassified table-top exercise; and held 11 BIEC principals meetings and over 100 BIEC working-level meetings.

1USG International Mail Initiative: Total inbound mail volume of items containing goods in FY 2021 was over 148.6 million, a 64.4% decline since FY 2020. IMI kicked off with support from 12 PGAs and documented end-to-end 1USG mail process flow and baselined interagency access to advance electronic mail data.

Trade Industry Engagement: The COAC 1USG Working Group was established in July 2019 and has convened 23 times. It engages the trade community about PGA message sets, entry requirements, and policies, and serves as a conduit to the BIEC, providing regular input on initiatives such as the GBI and ACE enhancement efforts.

In addition to the BIEC’s accomplishments, the 14-page report also details key challenges and lessons learned in the process, along with anecdotal commentary provided by working members from PGAs during meetings in connection with the report’s development.