Welcome to TKCI site,

TKC International, Inc. is a Washington-based government relations and public affairs firm founded in 1978.  Its purpose is to assist organizations, companies, state and local governments, and foreign governments in guiding complicated and sometimes controversial issues through the government policy process, to facilitate international commercial relationships and provide thorough intelligence on governmental processes.

In his years in Washington, Bob Keefe learned to work the levers of power in government through service on Congressional staffs, political campaigns and as a consultant to key American and foreign organizations. A long-time veteran of Democratic Party politics, Keefe has served as an advisor to presidential candidates, senators and congressmen, governors and mayors.

Keefe has specialized in representing international clients in Washington and American firms abroad.  Included among his clients have been the national governments of Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Aruba, Albania, Azerbaijan, Japan, Philippines, and Angola.  In each instance, he structured successful communications and representation campaigns for the client nation.

In his long relationship with Aruba, he led their effort to establish a preclearance facility for U. S. Customs for travelers on commercial aircraft.  The program has been hailed as a major factor in increasing tourism visits to Aruba.  Recently, the U. S. Department of Homeland Security expanded the scope of the program in Aruba to include service to private aircraft, the first such facility to be developed.

In addition to leading his own successful consulting firms for more than thirty years, Keefe has been active in business.  He organized and chaired the Global Strategies Group, an international association of public affairs consultancies.  He was a founding director of Direct Impact, a leading grass roots lobbying firm.  He served as a director of a number of companies, including the High Speed Surface Transportation Corp. of Japan, an experimental, maglev train company.

Keefe writes regularly at www.bobkeefedc.com and for a number of international outlets on American political and public policy trends.  He lectures on politics and on trade policy for the United States Information Agency and other forums.  He is a regular speaker at leading business forums and corporate meetings.

Mr. Luigi De Angelis: Executive Vice President of TKCI. De Angelis has a Law degree for the Santa Maria University in Caracas and was a partner in the prestigious international De Angelis law firm, specialized in international representation, merges, acquisitions, venture capital, and public bonds.

De Angelis has joined forces with companies such as China National Electric Company CNNEC and Holley Group from China, Emergency Consult and Bombardier from Canada, The Rendon Group and Wesley K. Clark and Associates from the United States.

Since governmental and political arenas extend beyond the boundaries of the United States, the policies and strategies of companies must depend on access and relations with governments around the world.

TKC International represents foreign clients in the U.S., and U.S. concerns abroad.  We provide trade policy analysis and general representation work for Asian, African, Caribbean, European and Latin American clients.  And, conversely, we help solve American companies’ problems with foreign governments.

Through overseas affiliates and through the extensive contacts of our principals, we have access to comprehensive, current and accurate intelligence worldwide.  We use this access to provide our clients with precise and reliable service in varied areas throughout the world.

Primarily, we focus on international trade policy activity, foreign assistance programs, and foreign exchange networks. We use our knowledge of the interaction between international politics and the global economy to develop successful policies and strategies.  We ultimately serve our clients as a communications link, facilitating an international exchange of ideas and policy options.

To meet our clients’ goals, we lobby for legislation; we provide solid policy and political analysis; we moderate international trade talks; we provide liaison and advocacy work with Federal Executive agencies; we help move projects through the maze of agencies’ approval processes; we work closely with the press in support of public policy objectives; we explore and pursue business and entrepreneurial projects; and we used our enormous political experience to assist corporations and groups seeking to develop greater political strength.

But government relations is not our only business.  We serve the valuable function of matchmaker to investors and those seeking funds from abroad.  We know the international finance market, its major public and private institutions and have links to important private investors.  We understand the LDC debt issues and the creative new techniques to use debt for economic development and nature conservation.  We serve government agencies abroad by developing communications programs and improving their governmental infrastructure.

Though we follow all types of issues through the legislative process for our clients, we specialize in the policy development and the politics surrounding a number of prominent international issues:

• Foreign Trade and Trade Promotion
• Defense
• International Banking and Finance
• Foreign Investment Opportunities
• Economic Development
• Third World Debt
• Foreign Assistance
• Economic and Foreign Policy

Preclearance facilities have proven to be popular with travelers, with the airlines and with the nations who participate in the program.  The benefits for all parties in the program are so significant that we believe the United States can be encouraged to expand this facility to additional ports, particularly those with a high volume of traffic with the United States.

There are several real advantages to a tourism destination to have pre-clearance:

1. Passengers are afforded the benefits of making quick domestic and international connections and by having their checked luggage automatically transferred between flights by air carriers without being claimed.
2. Airports may benefit by having more direct flights to U.S. destinations.
3. Meanwhile, U.S. airports enjoy the benefit of reduced passenger delays in the international arrival area as well as increased service to pre-cleared destinations.
4. Because flights that have been pre-cleared can fly to any destination in the United States, not just those few with Customs facilities, it enables carriers to serve the market to attractive, but less traveled destinations in the USA.

There are currently fourteen preclearance facilities operated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Service.  Ten are in Canada, four in the Caribbean: Aruba, Nassau, Freeport Bahamas and Bermuda. Two more are being constructed in Ireland for operations to begin next year.  It is anticipated that other such facilities will be opened in Europe soon.  Preclearance facilities are staffed and operated by officers from the United States who do the processing procedures exactly as it would be done within the United States at a border entry point.

When travelers from a preclearance port arrive in the U.S. they do so as domestic travelers (and are not subject to further inspections). This is particularly beneficial to those who have an ongoing connection (such as a connecting flight), as there is no risk of border delays causing them to miss their connection. Air travelers with further connections have their baggage checked through to their destination; without preclearance the baggage would have to be collected prior to customs inspection and then checked-in for the subsequent flight.

Preclearance provides considerable flexibility to the airlines operating in those routes where this program is available. For example, major U.S airlines and their subsidiaries routinely operate many daily flights from locations like Toronto and Ontario in Canada, or Nassau in the Bahamas, to New York. Thanks to the presence of preclearance facilities like those in Toronto and Nassau, the airlines can conveniently direct their flights from these locations to land at La Guardia Airport, rather than the much larger and busier John F. Kennedy International Airport. This allows them to save the valuable space at JFK for their other international arrivals.

Preclearance applies to both U.S. citizens as well as citizens of most other countries who travel to the U.S. As the U.S. requires those in transit through the U.S. to pass through U.S. immigration (unlike many other countries, which permit airside transfers), preclearance also applies to transit passengers.

These facilities exist because of agreements made between the federal government of the United States and the government of the host country. Travelers who have passed through the U.S. government checks, but whose flight or ship has not departed, remain in the legal jurisdiction of the host country. U.S. officials may question and search travelers, but they do not have powers of arrest (either for customs or immigration violations, or for the execution of outstanding warrants), although they can deny boarding. Local criminal laws apply, and are enforced by local officials.

In the United States, the principal responsibility for this activity is the U. S. Customs and Border Security Protection Service of the Department of Homeland Security, but other agencies will be involved, including the Department of Transportation, the Department of State and the Department of Justice.  In the past, special legislative authority was required.

operates primarily from Washington DC:

1776 I Street NW Suite 900

Washington DC 20006 USA.

Phone: +1 (202) 756-4783

Fax: +1 (202) 756-1301

info@tkci.com