"U.S. Customs wants to visit your factory."
What? Is somebody trying to bushwhack us in the (U.S.) International Trade Commission? You can take patent and trademark cases there, but it is an expensive and assholish way to litigate an I.P. issue. What else do they handle? Dumping? I don't think anyone who knew our prices could think that they are unfairly low. Or even a little bit low. So I reply and ask what the visit is to be about. I get "CPAT". What the hell is a CPAT? No, it's CT-PAC. I'm still lost. Finally, I'm told it is C-TPAT. Googling that term tells me... oh crap:
Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism
Magical Spirit Guide is whispering in my ear. He is saying: "This is going to suck."
I go to the U.S. customs website, and find the "Implementation Plan – Minimum Security Criteria for Foreign Manufacturers". This sentence:
For those business partners not eligible for C-TPAT certification, the foreign manufacturer must require that their business partners to demonstrate that they are meeting C-TPAT security criteria via written/electronic confirmation (e.g., contractual obligations; via a letter from a senior business partner officer attesting to compliance; a written statement from the business partner demonstrating their compliance with C-TPAT security criteria or an equivalent World Customs Organization (WCO) accredited security program administered by a foreign customs authority; or, by providing a completed foreign manufacturer security questionnaire).tells me that once again Magical Spirit Guide is probably going to be right again.
There's only one way to handle this. I'm going to send the Customs guys over to Red A's company. If terrorists want to smuggle bombs and opium and foreignism into the United States, it would be a lot easier to hide stuff in desks. Not so easy to hide Semtex in a ratchet. And besides- neck beard. And "Red A" implies both communism and anarchism at the same time.
Chaon. Trade partnership. Against terrorism. Victory Freedom!
9 comments:
LOL @ ur definition of Red A
I read the C-TPAT FAQs and from your explanation you'd be a "Certain Invited Foreign Manufacturer".
It seems it's a club they're trying get you to join.
It's appears there are some "benefits". Like the "opportunity to play an active role in the war against terrorism." (Surely that's on your list of sh*t to do.)
But maybe less delay at the border would be worth it?
Good first gut instinct: send 'em over to Red A first.
:)
spencer
btw, great post on relevant issues to business on the Wan
LOL. Tell them they are specially made anti-terrorism ratchets. The instructions are written by engineers and are indecipherable to normal humans.....
They are "Victory Freedom Ratchets", and if you don't go buy one right now, the terrorists have already won.
I did a trademark search for "Victory Freedom". I got 3 hits:
Victory Wings Freedom Beyond Belief
Ride Freedom Ride Victory
Victory Through Surrender Freedom Through Responsibility.
Aha! So, you changed their name from "French Ratchets".....
So who played last night? I did 33 pages of chinglish editing, and I still face 20 more in the same text this morning. I'm hoping for a meteor strike or something to put me out of my misery.
Michael
Malv, Red A, AJ. Played two games, finishing sometime after 12:00 I think. I won twice, once with axis and Banzai, second with Allies and no N/A's.
You left a copy of one of your editing jobs on my desktop last weekend. I started to read it, and woke up in the hospital three days later. The doctor said I had been in a syntactical coma.
Actually, we have been filling out the CPTAT forms for a couple of years now. Never had anyone come for a visit.
"Never had anyone come for a visit."
You will soon...
BTW, I need your company's address and phone number and e-mail and a copy of your business license. For victory freedom!
I don't they can really make you comply or anything. I wonder if you got put on some list by one of your friendly competitors?
I did find their checklist interesting - and probably useful for some Taiwanese SMEs who maybe never considered security that much.
It cannot be any worse than an Office Depot Social Audit...where our factory didn't pass the First Aid part even though they have a nurse on duty full time at a nurse's station. (You have one of those?)
No, I think according to Taiwan law, you have to have an on duty nurse if you are over... 300? employees. We are usually around 250.
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