U.S. & Mexico Sign Mutual Recognition Arrangement
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced last week the signing of a mutual recognition arrangement (MRA) with Mexico’s Tax Administration Service (SAT) that allows stronger collaboration between CBP’s Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program and its Mexican counterpart called the New Certified Companies Scheme (NEEC).
“I am pleased to be here to join Chief Núñez in the signing of the Mutual Recognition Arrangement,” said CBP Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. “This is a significant milestone for both the United States and Mexico and the facilitation of secure trade between the two countries.”
What is MRA (mutual recognition arrangement)? [From CBP]:
Mutual Recognition refers to those activities associated with the signing of a document between U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and a foreign Customs Administration that provides for the exchange of information. The document, referred to as an “arrangement”, indicates that the security requirements or standards of the foreign industry partnership program, as well as its validation or audit procedures, are the same or similar with those of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program.
The essential concept of MR is that C-TPAT and the foreign program are compatible in both theory and practice so that one program may recognize the validation findings of the other program.
Benefits envisioned by an MRA include:
- Efficiency
- Risk Assessment Tool
- Less Redundancy/Duplication of Efforts
- Common Standard/Trade Facilitation
- Transparency
In addition to Mexico, the United States also has mutual recognition arrangements with New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Korea, Israel, Jordan, the European Union and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office.
Leave a Reply