Washington, D.C. : The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) plans to evaluate its foray into blockchain technology by the end of the year.
Members of a government advisory group, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC), met on October 3 to advocate for regulatory reform around different trade-focused areas, with “emerging technologies” coming up as a point of conversation.
In particular, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) representatives said the agency has concluded its latest round of testing blockchain technology for supply chain management, according to a press release published Tuesday.
CBP is working to determine if a blockchain-based platform can streamline the agency’s efforts to track shipments around the world as part of the soon-to-be-replaced North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), as previously reported.
Celeste Catano, global product manager at BluJay Solutions, a supply chain software company working with the agency, said CBP is currently evaluating its proposed use of blockchain technology, adding that “we hope to have some recommendations by the December meeting.”
“We just completed our testing last week on the blockchain solution for NAFTA and CAFTA verifications,” Catano told the meeting’s attendees.