Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (“C-TPAT”) is a voluntary program through which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) and companies work together to strengthen the security measures that are applied to international supply chains in order to ensure the integrity of shipments that arrive at the U.S. border.
CBP developed C-TPAT to encourage importers, carriers, consolidators, customs brokers, and manufacturers to adopt and maintain certain security measures for their imports of merchandise into the United States.
When a company opts to join C-TPAT, it is required to address a broad range of security topics, present security profiles, maintain security measures, and work with their foreign supply chain partners (i.e., suppliers and service providers) to adopt the same types of security protocols.