BONNER STRESSES INTERNATIONAL CARGO SECURITY STANDARDS

BONNER STRESSES INTERNATIONAL CARGO SECURITY STANDARDS    U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert Bonner on Tuesday told U.S. senators a key feature of the Port and Maritime Security Act would be the use of advance information to screen cargo for contraband before leaving for the United States.
   Passage of the act (S. 1214) would require submissions of advance shipping manifests before departure for U.S. ports of entry, Bonner told senators at a committee field hearing organized by a U.S. senate committee in Charleston, S.C.
'    “We must expand our perimeter of security away from our national boundaries and toward foreign points of departure,” Bonner said.
   Bonner also mentioned a measures he has proposed recently, the Container Security Initiative (CSI), which would address the vulnerability of cargo containers to terrorists’ smuggling efforts.
   The CSI would establish international security criteria for identifying high-risk cargo containers, he said. The initiative would push for pre-screening cargo at points of departure with detection technology, and the use of electronic seals on containers to thwart tampering or theft, he added.
   CSI and the port security act could work together to prevent terrorists or contraband from entering the U.S. ports, he said.
   Such preemptive measures would transmit vital information on cargo. “To put it more simply, the more technology and information we have, and the earlier in the supply chain, the better,” he said.