As Jean-Alain Ress takes a hard look at the air cargo industry, there is little question that competition is steadily gaining muscle. Ress, who heads marketing for Aeroports de Paris cargo and ground handling services, predicted that the traditional notion of Europe as individual countries, each representative of an exclusive distribution hub, is surely on the way out—what lies immediately ahead is a single European market. The situation has greatly changed for such major European airports as Paris, London, and Germany, and with the creation of a single market, Europe will look drastically different—in fact, it will be the world’s biggest market.

The formation of a new automated export system (AES), with a development team comprising multidisciplinary Customs and Census employees, and including operational and technical staff members at the U.S. Customs Service came under Sharon Mazur. AES was in strong support of the administration’s effort to improve the collection of trade-related statistics as well as the objectives of the National Performance Review—for example, the expansion of electronic government, streamlining trading process, and the elimination of publication and unnecessary data. AES was zeroing in on upgraded trade statistics, improved collection of the management fee, facilitation of exports, and improved export compliance.