Your Certification Is Only as Strong as Your Partners.
For every foreign supplier and logistics partner that isn’t CTPAT or MRA certified, CBP expects documented evidence that you’ve assessed their MSC compliance. We audit them, document the findings, and provide the corrective action templates your partners need to meet the bar — protecting your certification and de-risking your supply chain in one step.
Partner with Us for Comprehensive Business Partner Audits
Benefits of Conducting Business Partner Audits
- Demonstrates the company’s compliance with the MSC — Shows CBP that your organization is properly vetting, assessing, and monitoring non-CTPAT and non-MRA business partners as required.
- Assesses each partner’s compliance with the MSC — Evaluates whether foreign suppliers and service providers meet all applicable CTPAT requirements and identifies any gaps or missing evidence.
- Identifies non-compliance risks early and outlines how partners can correct them — Gives partners clear guidance on the issues that must be addressed before they impact your certification.
- Provides partners with the required MSC-compliant documents — We give business partners all of the policies, procedures, forms, logs, and training material they need to comply with the MSC so they are not left guessing or trying to interpret requirements on their own.
Collaborative and Constructive Approach
We understand that many of your foreign business partners are essential to your supply chain and their compliance directly impacts your CTPAT certification. Our goal is not only to assess their current level of compliance but to guide them toward full alignment with the MSC.
Our approach builds cooperation, not pressure. We work directly with your suppliers and logistics partners to:
- Identify specific compliance gaps.
- Explain what needs to be improved and why.
- Provide all required MSC-compliant policies, procedures, forms, and training material.
- Support implementation of corrective actions and verify completion.
This collaborative method strengthens your global partners, protects your certification, and results in a more secure, transparent, and resilient supply chain.
How we strengthen your supply chain security
Strengthen Your Supply Chain with Comprehensive Business Partner Audits
CTPAT Business Partner Audit FAQs
Below are answers to common questions about business partner audits, supply chain risk, and what to expect from the audit process.
What is a CTPAT Business Partner Audit?
A CTPAT Business Partner Audit is an assessment of a supplier or service provider’s supply chain security practices to confirm whether they meet the applicable CTPAT Minimum Security Criteria (MSC) and to identify gaps that could introduce risk into your supply chain.
Why does CTPAT require business partner screening and monitoring?
CTPAT requires members to determine and assess the risk business partners bring into the supply chain and to document screening and monitoring practices. This is part of maintaining compliance with the MSC and supporting your annual risk assessment requirements.
Which business partners should be audited?
Business partner audits are most important for non-CTPAT and non-Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) partners such as foreign suppliers, vendors, manufacturers, and logistics service providers that handle your cargo or support your international supply chain.
How often should business partner audits be conducted?
Most CTPAT members audit business partners prior to doing business with them; once a year for high-risk business partners; and every two years for medium-risk business partners.
What does Secure Trade Advisors evaluate during a business partner audit?
We evaluate whether your business partner’s security program and evidence meet the applicable MSC requirements, identify security and documentation gaps, and provide clear corrective actions so the partner can align with CTPAT expectations.
What happens if a business partner is not compliant?
If gaps are identified, we outline what must be corrected and help the partner understand what evidence and procedures are required to meet MSC expectations. This reduces supply chain risk and demonstrates to CBP that your company is actively managing partner compliance.
Do you provide business partners with templates and documents to meet MSC requirements?
Yes. We provide partners with MSC-compliant policies, procedures, forms, logs, and training materials so they can implement the required controls instead of guessing or interpreting requirements incorrectly.
Is a business partner audit the same as a security questionnaire?
A questionnaire is one tool for screening, but it isn’t enough on its own. A business partner audit evaluates compliance more thoroughly by reviewing procedures, evidence, and implementation to verify whether MSC requirements are actually being met.
Does this help with our CTPAT validation readiness?
Yes. Demonstrating documented screening, monitoring, and corrective action for business partners supports MSC compliance and strengthens validation readiness by showing CBP you are actively managing supply chain risk beyond your own facilities.
How does business partner compliance protect our CTPAT benefits?
CBP can downgrade or suspend your CTPAT status if business partner relationships introduce unaddressed security risk into your supply chain. Maintaining a documented business partner audit program protects your access to the full range of CTPAT benefits — including reduced exams, FAST lane access, and AEO mutual recognition — by demonstrating to CBP that you are actively managing risk across your entire supply chain.
How can we verify if a business partner is CTPAT-certified?
CBP provides the Status Verification Interface (SVI), a portal where CTPAT-certified members can confirm the certification status of other certified partners. Using the SVI is one of the fastest ways to validate a supplier’s CTPAT participation before relying on it for business partner risk assessment purposes — though it only covers CTPAT-certified companies, which is why on-site or document-based business partner audits remain essential for non-certified suppliers.
Ready to Get Started?
Complete the form below and an advisor will contact you.
"*" indicates required fields