Question: How do members perform CTPAT Business Partner Screening? I.e. manually via email, or using a third-party tool? Can anyone recommend a third-party tool that works particularly well for this? Thank you. Answer 1: Our company uses a third-party tool and it has worked out great. It’s efficient and easy to keep track of replies […]
Question: Does anyone have any processes that CBP identified as best practices during a recent validation that they would be willing to share? Answer 1: CBP does not determine best practices under CTPAT. You are the participant so you will determine your own best practices and substantiate them during the validation process by showing the […]
Question: I have recently taken a new job. They are a member in good standing of CTPAT, but the CEO has asked me to evaluate whether saying in CTPAT is a good idea. So. How do I do that? Anyone have a good checklist? Answer 1: Keep it simple…..I would ask the CEO one question….Is […]
Question: I have recently taken a new job. They are a member in good standing of CTPAT, but the CEO has asked me to evaluate whether saying in CTPAT is a good idea. So. How do I do that? Anyone have a good checklist? Answer 1: Keep it simple…..I would ask the CEO one question….Is […]
Question: We are an EU-based multinational company that works with CMOs/Suppliers/Freight forwarders/3PLs that are already either CTPAT or AEO (mutual recognition program for the EU) certified. What is Customs’ expectation for the CTPAT application? Do we need to have a complete questionnaire for those members, or instead we could provide their certification number explaining what […]
Question: We are preparing our Imports CTPAT application in the Customs portal and noticed that part of the minimum-security criteria mentions needing to be ‘documented’. For those members that have gone through this process and worked with their assigned Customs officer, what is the expectation? Do we must have SOPs in place before applying, or […]
Question: We are preparing to be CTPAT certified and completing the questionnaire, we found in the CTPAT manual that the questions marked as SHOULD need to be answered with a N/A plus an explication of why it does not apply. When we started working on the project, we hired consultants who advised that we did […]
Question: I am looking to understand what others in the industry are currently doing to meet the MSC for annual employee training. Is your training covering all employees or only specific departments? If you are a retailer are you training your stores? Answer 1: All employees must be trained annually on CTPAT security within the […]
Question: We are a large company with multiple IOR numbers and many different US locations – warehouses, office buildings, distribution centers, etc. Imports to our locations may be under multiple IORs, and IORs may import to multiple locations. I’m new but I understand that CTPAT certification is done by IOR. What is “in scope” for […]
QUESTION: Some of our locations are asking how to define what cargo is considered high value or high risk for CTPAT, and I haven’t been able to find any definition for this in the CTPAT documentation. Does the membership have any (government) resources on this or can anyone share how they define it? ========== Answers: […]
QUESTION: My company has Tier 3 CTPAT status but is questioning the benefit vs effort. How does one go about “dropping” down to Tier 2, and would that put our program under increased scrutiny by CBP? Our leadership is looking for a clear distinction between Tier 2 and Tier 3 requirements, but I do not […]
QUESTION: Does anyone have experience with vendor C-TPAT surveys? If so, how did you format / style it and which manner were questions asked? Looking to send our vendors an innovative and easy C-TPAT survey. ========== Answer: There are a number of examples of these on-line. Have you “googled” “c-tpat vendor security questionnaire”? Are you […]
