Chertoff rejects 100 percent inspection of U.S.-bound cargo

DHS secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that the United States was making progress toward scanning more incoming cargo without slowing commerce. Speaking before the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, a panel of private-sector shipping and retail executives, Chertoff said the United States would not be able to scan 100 percent of in-bound cargo for terrorist activities without disrupting the supply chain and clogging ports.

“If I shut them, there won’t be any risk, but there won’t be any ports,” Chertoff said. Government Executive’s Andy Leonatti writes that He criticized mostly Democratic lawmakers who pushed for 100 percent physical scanning in a recently enacted homeland security bill, saying he would like to take certain members to ports and show them what would happen once their plan became reality.

Chertoff cited advances in the Container Security Initiative, in which foreign governments enter into agreements to improve scanning of suspicious cargo, saying the provisions of the initiative will be operational in fifty-eight ports around the world by 1 October. He also praised progress made in the Secure Freight Initiative, which will allow for radiation scanning of 100 percent of seaborne cargo by the end of the year. “We’ll be able to separate the kitty litter from the dirty bomb” without slowing down port traffic, Chertoff said. Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard are devising a plan for scanning small, incoming boats without cargo that could pose a threat. Chertoff sought the committee’s advice for a solution on how to more effectively scan cargo. “A simple argument like 100 percent physical inspection can have a lot of traction,” he said. “And if we’re not prompt and reasonably energetic in coming up with an alternative model for how to do this, we may well find the model being dictated by people that have a very simple viewpoint of what should be done, and that is to open everything up.”

The bill implementing recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, which President Bush signed into law 3 August, requires DHS to ensure, within five years, that all U.S.-bound ship cargo is scanned at foreign ports. The law allows the department to extend the deadline for ports that need more time to comply. Despite the possible deadline extensions, industry groups fought the provision up to the last moment before Congress passed the 9/11 bill last month. “If enacted, the 100-percent scanning provisions of the legislation would have a crippling effect on global trade, without significantly improving security,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned House members in a letter.