U.S, EU to harmonize air cargo security

U.S, EU to harmonize air cargo security The United States and the European Union on Friday announced they have agreed to coordinate their security efforts for air cargo carried aboard passenger aircraft.
   The agreement comes as the U.S. government works to implement a law requiring half of all cargo on passenger planes be inspected by Feb. 1 and that all cargo undergo scanning or other checks by August 2010.
      The Transportation Security Administration and the EU Directorate General for Energy and Transport plan to develop common security practices and benchmarks to minimize differences between their regulatory programs. Both sides pledged to continue to share classified technical information to develop common technical standards, create equivalent overall levels of security and explore new methods and procedures to secure air cargo from origin to destination.
   The governments said they plan to harmonize air cargo security standards to the extent allowed by their respective legal requirements to help meet the U.S. deadlines.