Joint White Paper: A Stronger IT Partnership Between the FDA and CBP: Opportunities to Share Technology, Data, and Resources

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), and their federal partners regularly work together to ensure that imported products are legal and safe for the public.

The Chief Information Officers (CIO) of the FDA and CBP recently met to explore ways that our two agencies can further share technology, data, and IT resources. CBP CIO Sonny Bhagowalia and FDA CIO Vid Desai expect to improve the ability of the agencies to find and intercept harmful products, reduce delays for importers and exporters, and foster a more secure supply chain. Their intentions align with both the FDA Strategy and the CBP IT Strategy.

CBP and the FDA expect that a stronger technology partnership could help both agencies with a range of efforts to protect the public from imports that violate U.S. laws and regulations.

Areas of Exploration Information Technology

1. Burden Reduction | Align and automate critical data and operations exchanges between CBP and FDA. Improve processing, integration, and mission data availability. This should reduce manual input, reduce operational burden for CBP and FDA, and reduce the burden for the public.
2. Alignment | Update the IT systems and processes of the FDA and the United States Postal Service (USPS) to align with those of CBP. Enhance cargo screening capabilities, reduce manual processes, and improve speed to access mission-critical data.
3. Interoperability | Improve compatibility (such as World Wide Web Consortium standards) and remove barriers between CBP, FDA, and other government agencies. Enable both operational and data fluency for interagency joint-mission success.
4. Risk Assessment | Share more transaction data between CBP and the FDA. Allow for amplified risk analysis and coordination. Support efforts to neutralize and eliminate malicious trade between the U.S. and foreign actors.
5. Innovative Technologies | Amplify the quantity, quality, and use of data to detect trends and anomalies like illicit trade practices; enhance U.S. economic security.

Access the paper here.

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