The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America

T he National Customs Brokers & For- warders Association of America (NCB- FAA), headquartered in Washington, DC, is the voice of the transportation logis- tics industry in America, representing more than 1,000 member companies, with 110,000 employees in international trade. NCBFAA members include the nation's leading freight forwarders, customs brokers, ocean transporta- tion intermediaries (OTIs), NVOCCs (non-vessel operating common carriers - persons or com- panies that organize shipments for individuals or corporations to get goods from the manu- facturer or producer to a market, customer, or final point of distribution), and air cargo agents, serving more than 250,000 importers and exporters. The NCBFAA was founded in New York City in 1897 as the Customs Clerks Association of the Port of New York. Customs clearance during that time was an all day affair, involving physi-