BORDER TRADE TO SUFFER UNDER PROPOSED MANIFEST RULES, INDUSTRY SAYS

BORDER TRADE TO SUFFER UNDER PROPOSED MANIFEST RULES, INDUSTRY SAYS       Motor carriers, logistics companies and shippers Thursday blasted a preliminary proposal from the U.S. Customs Service that would require them to submit electronic versions of truck manifests 4 hours prior to lading, saying delayed shipments caused by such a move would drive up costs and significantly harm their companies.
   The trade community's comments came during the second of four public meetings in Washington to get feedback from carriers, intermediaries and shippers on how to implement advance manifest collection required by Congress.
   'You are eliminating the expedite shipment market,' the newly installed president of Con-Way Southern Express said, adding that the economic impact of the rule needs to be studied. Con-Way Transportation, part of the CNF Inc. group of transportation companies, has several regional less-than-truckload operating units that use cross-docks to quickly consolidate shipments. 'If we have to stage things you have eliminated our ability to operate,' Miller said.
   Companies that provide express air cargo delivery expressed similar concerns at the Jan. 14 meeting that holding up shipments would take away their primary advantage ' speed of delivery ' compared with other modes of transportation.
   Having trucks stopped at the border on occasions when Customs hasn't had enough time to analyze shipping data 'is a risk that we are willing to take,' Miller said.
   Anecdotal evidence suggests the rule would cost the economy $60 billion and 1 million jobs and 'if you haven't done that kind of [macro-economic] study you are doing the country a disservice,' Miller said.
   Major manufacturers who operate near the Mexican and Canadian borders also said that they cannot afford to hold up production lines or store goods for four hours.
   The proposed scenario 'will do enormous damage to my business,' said General Motors Corp. Customs Manager Gilbert Duhn. 'I don't even order parts four hours in advance of manufacturing,' he said. Plants in Detroit, he explained, order parts from suppliers, have them trucked to Windsor, Canada for plating and painting, receive the return shipment and install them on cars in less than four hours.
   'If you change hours to minutes and lading to arrival [in the manifest rule], I will be happy,' Duhn said. 'If your computer can't handle 30,000 truck shipments when computers can do billions of computations a minute I guess you need to get a different computer,' he told the Customs' panel.
   Customs is in the middle of an expensive upgrade to its trade database and analytical software.
   Steven Kott, director of customs compliance for electronics manufacturer Thomson Multimedia Inc., said he thought a one to two hour notification window might be possible, but asked for some extra time 'to get back to our production people and make sure'.
   Customs is currently allowing only 10 more days for trade groups to submit written comments to influence the initial draft proposal.
   Many industry representatives also expressed concern that the 10 day period for submitting written comments to Customs was too short and that they were losing benefits of expedited clearances through voluntary participation in security programs such as the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism.
   The original talking points drafted by Customs also call for manifest data for exports to be electronically transmitted at least 24 hours prior to loading, but Charles Bartoldus, Customs' director of border targeting and analysis, told the audience of 175 industry officials that he was now 'leaning toward' a two-hour timeframe instead.