• The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is a voluntary public-private supply chain security initiative. C-TPAT members – including importers, carriers, consolidators, licensed customs brokers, and manufacturers – voluntarily adhere to cargo security standards in exchange for a range of benefits, such as reduced CBP inspections and priority border processing.
  • C-TPAT Mutual Recognition (MR) Arrangements facilitate bilateral trade by extending reciprocal recognition to qualifying foreign customs programs, thereby enabling members of the foreign programs to receive the benefits of C-TPAT membership. MR Arrangements indicate that security requirements, standards, and verification procedures of foreign industry partnership programs are substantially equivalent to those of C-TPAT.
  • CBP currently has MR Arrangements with only five countries: Canada, Japan, Jordan, New Zealand, and South Korea. These five countries have accounted for about 20 percent of US trade since 2004.
  • CBP has indicated that it is committed to growing the number of C-TPAT MR Arrangements. In December 2010, at a Transatlantic Economic Council meeting, US and EU officials discussed the possibility of implementing a MR Arrangement between the United States and the European Union by October 31, 2011.
  • In a June 2011 report, the US Chamber of Commerce called for CBP to develop a MR Arrangement with Mexico.