The International Warehouse Logistics Association (IWLA) has developed a program that will allow third-party warehouses to comply with the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) initiative. C-TPAT is a voluntary program, under which businesses involved in key aspects of international transportation or logistics agree to submit extensive information about their operations to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In exchange, they receive preferential treatment when their goods enter the U.S. from foreign ports. IWLA's C-TPAT program draws on the organizations own Security Best Practices Guidelines, which have already been endorsed by CBP. Last July, the agency informed IWLA that those guidelines meet the minimum-security criteria for C-TPAT. Currently, CBP does not allow third-party warehouses or other transportation intermediaries to participate directly in C-TPAT. IWLA said its guidelines are intended to create a C-TPAT-compatible standard to ensure that third-party providers meet the security requirements of their C-TPAT partners in the supply chain. "We were not content to sit back and wait for CBP to allow our industry to become C-TPAT-certified partners," said IWLA president and chief executive officer Joel Anderson. "Instead, after extensive discussions with CPB, IWLA decided not only to design a set of rigorous standards, but to take it to the next level by providing for third-party verification to gauge compliance." IWLA's Best Practices are the first of their kind in the industry, the group claimed.
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