CONECT sponsors C-TPAT meeting

New England's largest international trade group, Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) is sponsoring in conjunction with the BCBFFA, a symposium on Oct. 29 that will focus on the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) and will feature an address by U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner.

The event, which will take place at the Harvard Club in Boston, will feature presentations by three shippers whose companies are becoming C-TPAT compliant: Carol Fuchs, Vice President and Director of Global Trade Compliance for Motorola Corp.; Betty Little, Import Manager for New England Pottery Corp., and Barry O'Brien, Director Global Trade & Customs, Hasbro.

The event will also feature presentations by Robert Perez, Customs' C-TPAT Director; Bonni Tischler, former Assistant Commissioner of Customs who is now with Pinkerton, and Peter Powell, of C.H. Powell Co.The event will open with a report on security legislation by Peter Friedmann, Conect's Washington counsel. "We will hear first-hand how Commissioner Bonner intends to balance Customs' missions of trade facilitation and law enforcement, and its possible new home in the Department of Homeland Security," said Joan Padduck, president of Conect.