U.S.-bound ship cargo to get more scrutiny
The goal of screening 100 percent of U.S.-bound cargo containers is may not be reached any time soon, but new cargo-reporting requirement stipulates that ocean carriers and importers submit additional details about U.S.-bound cargo twenty-four hours before it is loaded onto vessels in foreign seaports
Though 100 percent screening of maritime cargo would be prohibitively costly and cause huge delays, DHS announced the other day a security measure intended to improve knowledge about ship cargo headed for U.S. ports, such as Philadelphia.
DHS secretary Janet Napolitano said U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had begun enforcing a cargo-reporting requirement that ocean carriers and importers submit additional details about U.S.-bound cargo twenty-four hours before it is loaded onto vessels in foreign seaports.
The rule aims to help identify high-risk cargo, such as hazardous materials, but will not have an effect on local port operations. “It’s more of a clerical information flow required from shippers and brokers,” said Gene Bailey, executive director of the Port of Wilmington. “We, at the port level, have nothing to do with that,” he said. “That’s between the steamship lines and Customs.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Linda Loyd writes that since the September 2001 terrorist attacks, vessels with U.S.-bound cargo are required to send ship manifests to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) twenty-four hours before sailing. The manifest information is transmitted to a national center and analyzed, and high-risk cargo is inspected before leaving foreign ports.
The new screening measure asks for details about where the cargo came from, who the shipper is, who the manufacturer was, etc. “The shipping community has known about it for quite some time,” said Thomas Holt Jr., head of Holt Logistics Inc., which runs the Packer Avenue Terminal in South Philadelphia and owns the Gloucester City Terminal south of Camden. “From our perspective in the port here, it won’t be any different,” Holt said. “This gives Customs a lot more time to screen the information that the exporters and shippers give them. And it also gives them additional information, different data elements, that will help them identify high-risk cargoes,” he said.
“So when cargoes do get here, Customs can either put them aside for further scrutiny, or expedite cargo they may not have to inspect. The key is to get to a point that cargo doesn’t get on the ship unless it’s prescreened,” Holt said. “It’s one more step in the government’s plan to make the country safer from terroristic threats. It’s a good thing,” Holt said. “There’s a much higher level of inspection of cargoes and sensitivity to high-threat cargoes than pre-9/11.”
