Customs
Committee Brown Bag: The new Office of International Trade
The WIIT Customs Committee hosted a brown bag
discussion on November 29, 2006, which featured the Executive Director of
the Office of Regulations and Rulings (ORR), Office of International Trade,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB), Sandra Bell. Ms. Bell's comments
were off the record. Over thirty trade and business professionals were in
attendance.
The discussion emphasized the ORR's integration into the CBP's new Office of International Trade (OT). The OT was created by the Safe Port Act of 2006 in order to consolidate the Office of Regulations and Rulings with the Office of Strategic Trade (OST) and enhance the efficiency of administering trade policy, according to Ms. Bell. However, Ms. Bell added, the day-to-day operations of the ORR are not expected to change.
The brown
bag lunch also included a focus on the ORR's agenda for fiscal year 2007.
Attendees learned that the ORR will continue to draft regulations; issue rulings;
advise other governmental agencies, Congress, and the public; and overall,
further the trade policy mission of the new OT.