In 2000, then-Minister of National Revenue Martin Cauchon introduced the objectives that would lead to ACI as part of the "Customs Action Plan". After the September 11 attacks against the United States, the security benefits associated with the project took on a new importance. In the Canada-US Smart Border Declaration created in December of that year, then-Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge called for "a system to collaborate in identifying high risk goods while expediting the flow of low risk goods."