C-TPAT

Question: I’d be interested to know how other CTPAT members perform their threat assessment by country from which they import. What resources are used to determine the various threats- terrorism, contraband, smuggling, etc? Is there a best place or best single source to find this information?  ========== Answers: Check the C-TPAT resources on the CBP […]

Question: As an Importer wanting to have 3rd Party C-TPAT Inspections/Certifications done at Vendors’ premises overseas, who pays for that? ========== Answers: It depends upon your agreement with your vendor.  However, an inspector that you are paying would theoretically be more independent than one paid by your vendor. ========== This would be the responsibility of […]

Question: For several years now, we’ve had our customs compliance manager submit the annual review and risk assessment.  After reading the new Portal 2.0 Trade User Manual, we noted special reference is made in the contacts section(page 19): … Every C-TPAT Security Model must have a company officer. A Company Officer is a person who […]

Question: For those of you participating in C-TPAT, was your responses/data copied over to the new portal or did you have to re-enter all your responses again in the upgrade? ========== Answers: Old profile came over as a .pdf document in the Document Exchange area, but everything had to be updated/re-entered in the new portal. […]

Question: We import finished goods in full containers from China. The primary suppliers of the finished goods actually load the containers at their premises. We also have secondary suppliers that provide the shipping cartons and packaging material to the primary suppliers. Do physical inspections need to take place of the secondary suppliers providing the packaging […]

Question: Would it be possible for the membership to provide best practices for managing infrequent foreign suppliers in C-TPAT. For example, if you import only a handful of shipments, i.e., one shipment a quarter, do you require the foreign supplier/manufacturer to fill out a C-TPAT questionnaire? How do you ensure proper security controls over these […]

Question: Is anyone else missing their Security Profiles in the new C-TPAT Portal 2.0 release?I have tried calling the C-TPAT help-desk and have sent messages with no response. ************* Answers: Yes the new portal does not have the old profile on it. We checked with CBPYou have to renter the profile in the new portal. […]

Question: Does anyone have a checklist that they use to audit their C-TPAT process that they can share? I’m looking for something to share with our internal audit teams as a guideline for the process. *********** ANSWER: Our internal auditors complete a blank C-TPAT questionnaire when auditing.  Their findings are then compared to the questionnaire […]

Question: My C-TPAT Annual Security Profile was due May 1st.  Due to the Portal we were told NOT to upload our profile updates yet.     Does anyone have confirmation as to when C-TPAT Annual updates will be due now that Portal 2.0 was officially launched this past weekend.     I’m assuming we have the […]

Question: Can anyone share exactly how someone ‘declines’ to continue in the C-TPAT program? We are up for re-validation and management is no longer interesting in climbing that mountain.   How to do so gracefully is the question. ========== All this requires is a simple letter on letterhead addressed to your Supply Chain Security Specialist that […]