Israel joins CSI
Israel has agreed to join the Container Security Initiative and selectively inspect container shipments at the request of U.S. Customs officers stationed at local ports, the agency said Monday.
A top Customs and Border Protection official signaled that Israel would join the cargo security program during congressional testimony two weeks ago, as reported by Shippers’ NewsWire.
Under the agreement U.S. officers will target high-risk containers for automated inspection processing at the ports of Haifa and Ashdod. CSI is operational in 50 international ports.
Israel and CBP will spend about six months to deploy inspection technologies, deploy personnel and establish protocols for dealing with suspicious containers.