White House Releases National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security

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January 26, 2012

The White House recently released its “National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security,” through which it aims to establish the United States Government’s policy for strengthening the global supply chain. The strategy focuses on the worldwide network of transportation, postal, and shipping pathways, assets and infrastructures by which goods are moved from the point of manufacture until they reach an end consumer, and the supporting communications infrastructure and systems. The proposed strategy includes two main goals: promoting the efficient and secure movement of goods and fostering a resilient supply chain.

The Administration’s first goal of the Strategy is to promote the timely, efficient flow of legitimate commerce while protecting and securing the supply chain from exploitation and reducing its vulnerability to disruption.

The Administration aims to achieve this goal by:

• Resolving threats early to expedite the flow of legitimate commerce. By integrating security processes into supply chain operations, the Administration seeks to identify items of concern and resolve issues as early in the process as possible.
• Improving verification and detection capabilities to identify the goods that are not what they are represented to be, are contaminated, are not declared, or are prohibited, and to prevent cargo from being compromised or misdirected as it moves through the system.
• Enhancing security of infrastructure and conveyances in order to protect the supply chain and critical nodes, through limiting access to cargo, infrastructure, conveyances, and information to those with legitimate and relevant roles and responsibilities.
• Maximizing the flow of legitimate trade by modernizing supply chain infrastructure and processes to meet future market opportunities; developing new mechanisms to facilitate low risk cargo; simplifying our trade compliance processes; and refining incentives to encourage enhanced stakeholder collaboration.

The Administration's second goal is to foster a resilient supply chain that can withstand evolving threats and hazards and can recover rapidly from disruptions.

The Administration seeks to foster such a resilient supply chain by:

• Mitigating systemic vulnerability to a supply chain disruption prior to a potential event by using risk management principles to identify and protect key assets, infrastructure, and support systems, as well as promoting the implementation of sustainable operational processes and appropriate redundancy for those assets.
• Promoting trade resumption policies and practices that will provide for a coordinated restoration of the movement of goods following a potential disruption by developing and implementing national and global guidelines, standards, policies, and programs.

The Departments of State and Homeland Security will lead a six month engagement period with the international community and industry stakeholders in order to solicit feedback and specific recommendations on priority areas on which the Administration will focus immediate implementation efforts.

The Administration is particularly interested in receiving views and recommendations from stakeholders on the following priority issues:

• Refining its understanding of global supply chain threats and risks across air, land, and sea pathways;
• Improving threat detection and information analysis, as well as sharing capabilities;
• Building resilient critical infrastructures and fostering a system that can absorb shocks and maintain continuity in the face of disruptions;
• Improving U.S. capacity for commerce by modernizing and expanding domestic infrastructures, streamlining government processes, and creating innovative solutions to speed the movement of legitimate goods across U.S. borders; and
• Embracing and advancing global standards and encouraging collaboration with other stakeholders seeking to contribute to this collective mission.

For further information, please contact a Barnes/Richardson attorney.