THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, November 11, 1994 TAG: 9411110633
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
The head of the U.S. Customs Service reassured the Hampton Roads maritime industry Thursday about the agency's planned reorganization.
Baltimore was chosen for one of 20 so-called Customs Management Centers nationwide, raising concerns that the port of Baltimore had gained an edge on the port of Hampton Roads.
``The main concern that the port has is that other ports will use the Customs Management Center as a marketing tool,'' said Katie Carney, local branch manager for Circle International Inc., a global customs broker and freight-forwarding firm.
Commissioner of Customs George J. Weise, meeting with Hampton Roads maritime officials in Norfolk, explained that the management centers are just back-office support centers for the field offices.
``Where they are located will have absolutely no impact on our ability to service our customers,'' Weise said. ``The problem is that cities that have CMCs are trying to portray them as more than they are.''
Weise assured members of the local port community that he would work to disavow the idea that the Customs Service should be a factor in where shipping lines and importers should be moving freight, said J.J. Keever, executive vice president of the Hampton Roads Maritime Association.
The Customs Service collects tariffs and inspects imports. It is the federal government's second-largest revenue source after the Internal Revenue Service.
The reorganization, announced in late September, will sweep aside a 30-year-old management structure that divided the country into seven regions and 45 districts. Norfolk is the headquarters for a district that includes the ports of Hampton Roads, Richmond and Charleston, W.Va.
The Customs Service will install a flatter management structure with offices in each port reporting directly to its Washington headquarters. The agency is also establishing 20 Customs Management Centers to handle the internal administration of each port office.
Administrative issues including budgets, personnel, payroll and policy oversight, which had been handled at the district office level, now will be handled at a management center.
``It's a totally internal management center for customs,'' Carney said.
Norfolk did not get a management center and one in Atlanta will handle its back-office functions.
The problem for some in the local port community is that some people in the competing port of Baltimore have been crowing about their Customs Management Center.
``We just need to dispel the concept that these CMCs are something better than they are,'' Keever said.
The issue is one of perception that risks becoming reality if the Customs Service doesn't act to clear it up, Weise said.
Weise is inviting representatives of concerned ports to Washington for a meeting on Nov. 21 to identify who they are worried about being misinformed and to develop a strategy to dispel the idea that customers would get better service at ports with a Customs Management Center.
Shipping lines aren't likely to make business decisions based on how customs is organized anyway. Shipping lines, freight forwarders, and importers and exporters appear more concerned about shipping times through a given port, access to the sea, and rail and truck connections.
``It's absolute hogwash that a major shipping line would go to one port or another over this customs reorganization,'' said the local representative of one major steamship line. ``The type of services being offered by customs is not going to change.''
The whole idea of the reorganization is to improve customer service at the port level and put more resources in the ports, Weise said.
``What we're doing is empowering our ports,'' Weise said. ``Our ports are going to have more power and more authority to resolve issues.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by Christopher Reddick, Staff
Commissioner of Customs George J. Weise met with Hampton Roads
maritime officials Thursday to discuss his agency's reorganization.
by CNB