WASHINGTON – The Border Interagency Executive Council confirmed its new vice-chair, Aurelia Skipwith, during its quarterly meeting on Nov. 18.

Skipwith, who is currently the deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife, and Parks with the U.S. Department of Interior, will serve a two-year term.

The BIEC, chaired by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is an executive advisory board comprised of over two dozen partner government agencies with border management authorities and responsibilities. The council is charged with enhancing federal coordination across multiple missions within the customs arena, such as transport security, consumer health and safety.

The BIEC selects the vice-chair, who will serve in a governance and stewardship role for the interagency council, from among its members. The position was previously held by Consumer Product Safety Commission’s former Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle.

“The BIEC is truly a best practice for its commitment and dedication to transparency,” said CBP’s Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan and council chair. “The focus of this group is interagency partnership and joint enforcement. When we improve coordination efforts with our partners, we strengthen overall border security.”

Current BIEC priorities address key trade facilitation and trade compliance-related challenges.

Some BIEC Priority Initiatives include:

Single Window Sustainment Initiative, which supports interagency maintenance, innovation and optimization of the Automated Commercial Environment, the primary system for processing import and export data required by the United States government.

Global Business Identifier Initiative, which aims to develop a systematic, accurate and efficient method to identify legal entities, supply chain roles, and foreign addresses for the purpose of enabling One U.S. Government (1USG) to use a “common language” employed by the trade community to better position the 1USG to focus on high-risk shipments.

Entry Type 86 Preparedness, an initiative supporting the 1USG effort to maximize and evaluate benefits from the rollout of CBP’s ET86 Test, which deployed on September 27, 2019. The purpose of this new automated entry type is to further facilitate cross-border e-Commerce and allow electronic filing of Section 321 low-value shipments of PGA regulated commodities through ACE’s Automated Broker Interface for the first time.

Skipwith currently oversees policy, planning, and regulatory actions for the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, including the 150 million-acre Wildlife Refuge system and over 400 units of the National Park Service. She’s been nominated to serve as FWS director by President Donald Trump.

Additional information on the BIEC can be found at https://www.cbp.gov/trade/border-interagency-executive-council-biec. Follow CBP Office of Trade on Twitter @CBPTradeGov