US and New Zealand Sign Joint Statement on Global Supply Chain Security

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today joined New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully to sign a joint statement on global supply chain security cooperation — further strengthening ongoing collaboration between the United States and New Zealand to promote economic prosperity and make the global supply chain system stronger, smarter and more resilient. (see also US & NZ: Memorandum to Strengthen Emergency Management Collaboration)
“New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region play an increasingly prominent role in our global commerce and within the global supply chain,” said Secretary Napolitano. “This joint statement allows the United States and New Zealand to build upon our existing efforts to enhance international supply chain security and paves the way for future collaboration between our nations.”
During today’s meeting, Secretary Napolitano and Minister McCully reiterated their commitment to pursuing global supply chain security initiatives designed to prevent terrorists from exploiting the global supply chain to plan and execute attacks; protect the most critical elements of the supply chain system, such as transportation hubs and related critical infrastructure, from attacks and disruptions; and build the resilience of the global supply chain to ensure that if something does happen, the supply chain can recover quickly.
Currently, through Project Global Shield—launched by DHS, the World Customs Organization, INTERPOL, and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in 2010—New Zealand joins the more than 60 participating nations that share information with each other to ensure that chemicals entering their countries are being used in safe and legal ways, leading to successful interdictions of a number of suspicious shipments and providing promising investigative leads on the smuggling of precursor chemicals into Afghanistan and Pakistan. In January, Secretary Napolitano joined World Customs Organization (WCO) Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya to announce a new collaboration between DHS and the WCO to enlist other nations, international bodies and the private sector in increasing the security of the global supply chain. (a list of other DHS bilateral agreements can be found here)