ECLAC’s office in Washington, D.C. has made available to the public an Observatory of Import Customs Control (OCAI), a database of information on the detention of goods in United States by its customs service.

The Observatory seeks to provide relevant information to identify the areas requiring special attention in order to improve access to the U.S. market. This data includes the date and reason of detention, the type of product and its country of origin and the port of entry.

It is particularly useful for the food and pharmaceutical industries, which have gained participation in total United States imports, but are also facing greater and stricter technical standards and regulations to international trade.

For many of the region’s exporters, the current standards are a challenge for accessing the United States market, and this is reflected in a significant and sustained increase in the number of customs detentions.

The first five years included in the database (2001-2005) records data from 18 countries in the region. From 2006 onward, the database provides information from countries all over the world that count with precise and reliable data.

Requests for data may be sent to: ocai@cepal.org.

For more information, see “Observatory of Imports Customs Control in the United States: Technical Standards” (R. Artecona and F. Flores - in Spanish) and www.cepal.org/en/headquarters-and-offices/eclac-washington-dc.