SPAIN JOINS U.S. CUSTOMS? CONTAINER SECURITY INITIATIVE

SPAIN JOINS U.S. CUSTOMSÆ CONTAINER SECURITY INITIATIVE    The Spanish government has signed a declaration of principles to join the U.S. Customs Container Security Initiative.
   Government officials present at the signing of the agreement in Washington Wednesday afternoon were Robert C. Bonner, U.S. Customs commissioner and Nicolas Bonilla Penvela, Spanish Customs director general.
   The U.S. Customs Container Security Initiative (CSI), which was launched by the agency in January 2002, wants to push container security away from U.S. ports of entry and closer to the cargo origin ports and loan centers, and calls for advance cargo manifest information filed to the agency 24-hours prior to loading containers on ships overseas.
   CSI also places U.S. Customs inspectors in overseas ports to assist their counterparts to identify and pre-screen high-risk containers before they’re loaded on vessels. Spanish and U.S. Customs officials will work together to pre-screen U.S.-bound containers at the port of Algeciras.
   Spain joins a half-dozen European countries that signed CSI agreements with U.S. Customs during the past year, including Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
   “Emerging global terrorism requires the Customs authorities of allied nations to confront this new challenge together,” Bonilla Penvela said. “We want to prevent terrorists from disturbing global commerce through container traffic. For that reason, the government of Spain has decided to support the U.S. Container Security Initiative.”
   Spain signed a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement with the U.S. government in 1990. “We are signing this declaration of principles in order to intensify bilateral Customs cooperation, exchange information and work together closely to help ensure the identification, screening, and sealing of high-risk containers,” Bonilla Penvela said.
   Algeciras is ranked the 17th-largest container port in the world. To U.S. Customs, it’s a “strategic port” because many containers from the Middle East and North Africa are transshipped through Algeciras, Bonner said.
   However, the European Commission recently attacked the CSI program, claiming the initiative caused “trade distortions” in Europe’s seaports. Bonner said there’s “no evidence” that CSI has caused trade distortions.
   “Nonetheless, to address the concern of the EC, U.S. Customs is expanding CSI to all European ports that ship significant numbers of containers to the United States by implementing CSI at 11 additional European ports,” Bonner said in a statement in late December.
   “These ports, in addition to those where CSI is already implemented, or in the process of being implemented, will represent nearly 100 percent of all containerized cargo shipped from Europe to the United States,” he added.
   Now that the CSI declaration of principles is signed with Spanish Customs, U.S. Customs plans to move quickly to conduct its CSI assessment of Algeciras and implement the program in the port within the next four to eight weeks. Bonner said the agency also plans to rapidly expand CSI to other Spanish container ports, such as Valencia and Barcelona.