On June 23, Minister Yu Guangzhou held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Jeh Charles Johnson, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the U.S., and Mr. Alan Bersin, Assistant Secretary of DHS. The two sides carried out in-depth discussion and reached consensus on issues, including the advancement of C-TPAT joint validation, accelerating negotiations on mutual recognition of AEO, conducting point-to-point cooperation between each other’s Risk Targeting Center, expanding CSI cooperation, completing the Basic Implementation Procedure of CSI, and facilitating the placement of China Customs CSI Officers at the port of the U.S.

Minister Yu also congratulated U.S. Customs for its successful run for the Director of Compliance and Facilitation Directorate of the WCO, proposing further coordination and cooperation between both Customs on multilateral affairs. For enhancing China-U.S. Customs enforcement cooperation, Minister Yu put forward four proposals. Firstly, to enhance cooperation on combating commercial frauds and increase exchanges of intelligence and information. Secondly, to enhance substantive cooperation on combating the smuggling of endangered wildlife species. Thirdly, to make cooperative efforts on controlling the source of firearms and ammunition smuggling and intercepting the outbound parcels flow of illegal weapons. Fourthly, to deepen cooperation on intellectual property rights protection, including sharing seizure information, enhancing joint risk analysis, and conducting IPR enforcement trainings.

After the meeting, Minister Yu and Secretary Johnson signed the Declaration of Principles between the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Relating to Bilateral Customs Cooperation at Seaports to Enhance Security. The Heads of IPR protection departments of both sides signed a cooperation agreement on China-U.S. IPR protection.