Homeland Security Today’s Executive Editor Kristina Tanasichuk sat down with Brenda Brockman Smith, Executive Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, to discuss the role of trade agreements in homeland and border security, trade enforcement, and facilitation matters to enable legitimate trade, and protect against risks to public health and safety.
Executive Assistant Commissioner Smith oversees over 500 U.S. trade laws, to overseeing 14 trade agreements with 20 countries, to directing CBP’s seven Priority Trade Issues. She oversees national compliance audits and the management of trade data, along with CBP’s regulatory process for administering trade and border operations. She is also responsible for implementation of many components of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act (TFTEA) of 2015. TFTEA, the first comprehensive authorization of CBP since Department of Homeland Security was created in 2003, ensures a fair and competitive trade environment. She was also the driving force behind the automatization and modernization of trade processes through the completion of the U.S. Single Window via the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). Through ACE, the private sector transmits import-export data to 47 partner government agencies, eliminating over 250 paper forms and streamlining trade processes. CBP now has 100 percent of the scheduled core trade processing capabilities in ACE.
