CBP stresses need for global unity on cargo security

CBP stresses need for global unity on cargo security    The United States has been successful during the past three years implementing measures to protect containerized trade from terrorists who want to use the system to smuggle a high-destruction bomb into a city or port, but global trade will not be safe until other nations adopt the same strategy for border security, said Jayson Ahern, assistant commissioner for field operations with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
   Repeating a theme outlined by CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner several times this year, Ahern said, “we need to make CSI, C-TPAT, the 24-hour rule and automated targeting the international standard as quickly as possible.”
   CSI involves stationing customs officials at foreign ports to conduct inspections. The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism enlists companies to tighten up internal security in their supply networks and the 24-hour rule requires the submission of manifest information 24 hours prior to loading a vessel.
   Ahern was standing in for Bonner as the keynote speaker at Friday’s annual conference of the Pacific Coast Council of Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders in San Diego. Bonner had to accompany Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to Canada for meetings on implementing a Smart Border action plan. Bonner has made a point of pressing members of the World Customs Organization to adopt key elements of the risk management approach used by the United States to target high-risk containers and the address had the sound of a Bonner speech.
   U.S. policy should be used by the international community as an international framework to guide relations between customs administrations and private sector partners in securing the supply chain, Ahern said.
   As part of the cooperative strategy, all nations should provide share harmonized, advanced shipping and export data as well as information on potential terrorists risks, and conduct inspections on the behalf of receiving nations when “reasonable” requests to check an outbound shipment are made, Ahern said.
   “We don’t want 163 sets of different requirements to secure trade.” Ahern told the PCC, explaining how a global system can help streamline the import-export process for forwarders who have to deal with multiple cargo inspection rules in each nation.