EC SEES PROBLEMS WITH U.S. SECURITY RULES

EC SEES PROBLEMS WITH U.S. SECURITY RULES    The European Commission has “the deepest concerns” over the negative impact on business of the U.S. Customs Service’ proposed rule of 24-hour prior transmission of cargo manifests before departure of U.S.-bound vessels.
   Although the European regulator welcomes the security aim of proposed U.S. rule, the proposed rules raises major issues for Europe, Agisilaos Anastasakos, an official at the EC’s transport and energy directorate, told the Shipper Forum 2002 in Athens.
   “The rulemaking ' will have a very significant economic impact,” he said. He expects the ruling, if implemented, to add significant costs for shippers and carriers.
   It will require U.S.-bound cargoes from Europe to be in port up to three days before departure of the ship, he said.
   “Shippers and carriers have underlined the fact that this could create significant problems within the multimodal chain,” he said.
   The strong reservations expressed by the EC about the 24-hour manifest rule follows open criticisms of bilateral agreements signed by individual European countries with the U.S. under the U.S. Customs “Container Security Initiative.” The EC believes that the bilateral deals signed by The Netherlands, Belgium, France and Germany create a distortion of competition among European ports. Instead, the EC advocated a policy of a common European Union-wide agreement with the United States, rather than country-to-country agreements.
   Anastasakos would not comment on whether the EC would seek to revoke the bilateral agreements already signed.
   Nevertheless, he said the EC supports the contents of the U.S. Customs’ container security measures.
   In November, officials of the EC will meet their counterparts of the Department of Transportation and the Transportation Security Administration, he said.