Carriers may apply for FAST program

August 14, 2003

U.S. Customs is now accepting applications for the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program, a new U.S.-Canada initiative whose goal it is to align U.S. and Canadian customs commercial programs along the border for known low-risk, legitimate, commercial shipments. This program expands the U.S. C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) program to highway carriers for the first time. The FAST program is designed to ensure security and safety, and will use common risk-management principles, supply chain security, industry partnership, and advanced technology to improve the efficiency of screening and clearing commercial traffic along the U.S.-Canada border. U.S. Customs has posted information on the FAST program to its web site. Canadian information is also from Canada Customs.

Benefits to FAST participants will include dedicated lanes (where available) for greater speed and efficiency, and reduced cost of compliance with U.S. and Canada customs requirements. Highway carriers will remain subject to random compliance and enforcement checks at any time by both the U.S. and Canada. FAST processing of shipments is scheduled to commence in December, 2002 at six border crossings: Douglas, Buffalo-Fort Erie, Detroit-Windsor, Lewiston-Queenston, Port Huron-Sarnia, and Champlain-Lacolle. Once approved, FAST highway carrier participants will still need to use a FAST approved driver and be carrying qualifying goods for a FAST approved importer in order to obtain FAST clearance for a given shipment. Canada Customs advises that applications for importers and for drivers to participate in FAST should be available by the end of October, 2002. For importers, participation in the Customs Self-Assessment (CSA) program will be a prerequisite to participation in FAST. For drivers, the application will be similar to that for the current Commercial Driver Registration Program (CDRP), and in fact FAST will replace CDRP for those borders crossings where FAST is implemented. In the meantime, the three available categories of highway carrier FAST participants are FAST participant for expedited clearance into the U.S. only, FAST participant for expedited clearance into Canada only, and FAST participant for expedited clearance into both Canada and the U.S.

Highway carriers applying for FAST clearance into the U.S. must enter with U.S. Customs into an Agreement to Voluntarily Participate in the C-TPAT specifically for Northern Border highway carriers. Highway carriers applying for FAST clearance into Canada must submit to Canada Customs a Partners in Protection (PIP) Security Questionnaire specifically for Northern Border highway carriers, and be approved for participation in the CSA program. The FAST Application Process is described in a joint publication of U.S. Customs and Canada Customs. The U.S. component of the application, the C-TPAT Agreement, is also available online.