US port security tightened further

WASHINGTON — In a new move to combat terrorism, the United States will soon start to require shippers of cargo containers from all ports outside the US to provide US Customs with manifest information 24 hours before a container is loaded on board a vessel for shipment to the US.

"This will enable us to analyze the information and identify potential terrorist threats before the vessel sails, not after it arrives," said US Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza said on Wednesday he welcomed any move to make port facilities, including terminals and containers, safe and secure.

Mendoza added that the 21 member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation will meet at Subic in May this year to specifically discuss port security.

Bonner said the implementation of the 24-hour rule – which will start on Feb. 2 – will help ensure the success of a Container Security Initiative (CSI) currently, or about to be, implemented in many ports around the world including China, Japan and Singapore.

CSI is a US Customs Service initiative to prevent containerized shipping, which is the primary system used in global trade, from being exploited by terrorists. High-risk cargo containers are pre-screened for terrorist weapons at the port of departure instead of the port of arrival.

Under the new 24-hour rule, US Customs will deny permits to unload in the US if there is no description and if Customs was not provided with the data 24 hours before the loading of that container, Bonner said.

"Data that is incomplete or late will not be tolerated from carriers or shippers," he said.

Ten countries representing 17 of the top 20 ports that ship cargo containers to the US have agreed to and are implementing the CSI, Bonner said. They run containers through radiation detection scanners as well as large-scale X-ray or gamma ray machines.

Sixty-eight percent of all cargo containers that arrive in the US originate from or are shipped through these 20 ports.

"It is our intention to... expand CSI to other ports of the world that ship significant cargo containers to the US," Bonner said.

Ports that have signed on and are implementing the CSI are Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Rotterdam (Netherlands), Bremerhaven (Germany), Tokyo, Genoa (Italy) Yantian (China), Antwerp (Belgium) Nagoya, La Havre, Hamburg (Germany), La Spezia (Italy), Felixstowe (England), Algeciras (Spain), Kobe and Yokohama. – Jose Katigbak