Bonner promotes “smart seals” for C-TPAT program

Bonner promotes “smart seals” for C-TPAT program

Bonner promotes “smart seals” for C-TPAT program

   The United States’ chief border security officer said Wednesday that companies that use electronic seals and sensor technology to secure their international shipping containers and monitor tampering will receive expedited clearance for their goods.
   Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said companies that already are implementing security plans at their facilities and those of their suppliers in foreign lands must take the extra step of protecting their shipments during transit if they want their goods to go through the “low risk” fast lane at ports of entry.
   “It will be those companies that receive the full benefits of being C-TPAT members,” Bonner told members of the trade at a Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism seminar in San Francisco.
   Electronic seals typically are linked to a wireless communication system and can be connected to sensors that can detect changes in temperature, pressure, door opening and other conditions.
   According to a copy of his speech, the use of electronic, bolted seals will be voluntary.
   Customs inspectors stationed in foreign ports under the Container Security Initiative lock containers they have opened with hard bolt seals and tamper-indicating tape, but such methods only account for a tiny portion of overall traffic.
   “We need a smarter container than this for the entirety of the supply chain; one affixed at the time of shipping,” Bonner said.
   Voluntary or not, the new proposal makes the playing field more uneven for smaller importers that have difficulty paying for technology that some say could cost $150 per container, Susan Ross, a lawyer with Los Angeles-based Rodriguez, O’Donnell, Ross, Fuerst, Gonzalez & Williams, said during a break at the Western Cargo Conference in Albuquerque, N.M.
   Bonner said a Customs inspector has developed a low-tech solution that helps eliminate a big loophole with seals — namely thieves and others remove the whole door and replace it without disturbing the seal. The inspector, Ray Pardo, has invented a different type of hole for sealing a container that takes into account the hinges. By drilling the hole in a different location the container can’t be compromised.
   The “Pardo Hole” has become a mandatory component for trucking companies and shippers seeking to participate in the Free and Secure Trade program (which involves electronic transmission of shipping data to Customs) on the southern border.
   FAST has been in place on the northern border, but just began at one location along the Mexican border earlier this week.
   “In the near future, I envision CBP making the Pardo Hole or its equivalent a requirement for all C-TPAT containerized shipments into the U.S.,” Bonner said.