C-TPAT membership is a prerequisite for the FAST border program.
Meeting Government Security Standards
The U.S. Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is the counterpart of the Canadian Partners in Protection (PIP). It was designed to enhance border security, combat organized crime and terrorism, increase awareness of customs compliance issues, and help detect and prevent contraband smuggling. C-TPAT is a voluntary program that requires participants to improve security of their supply chain and internal compliance standards to meet U.S. Customs security guidelines.
Maintaining C-TPAT Standing
To maintain membership in C-TPAT, U.S. Customs and Border Protection mandates that member importers ensure that their business partners are actively analyzing their personnel, supply chain, and production and distribution facilities and that these facilities and internal processes are meeting or exceeding U.S. Customs' C-TPAT security requirements. Satisfying this mandate requires an on-going process to obtain, store, and validate data about suppliers' membership in C-TPAT, PIP and other security accreditation programs. This can prove to be a labor intensive administrative burden.