Kerry says number of container inspections is inadequate

Kerry says number of container inspections is inadequate    In his speech Thursday night accepting the Democratic Party nomination for president, John Kerry raised the possibility that in office he would strengthen homeland security by requiring closer scrutiny for more imports of ocean containers.
   “We shouldn’t be letting 95 percent of container ships come into our ports without ever being physically inspected,” he said.
   Many Democrats in Congress have called for more inspections instead of just using risk management techniques to selectively target high-risk containers. However, many of these proposals are vague and it is not clear in all cases if lawmakers are looking for more non-intrusive type of screening using technology or want containers opened and checked.
   Kerry also continued his populist message on trade, saying he wanted to export U.S. goods not jobs, a reference to the growing trend of companies outsourcing work to foreign countries with cheaper labor. He also called for tougher enforcement of trade agreements.
   “Our plan calls for a fair playing field — because if you give the American worker a fair playing field, there’s nobody in the world the American worker can’t compete against,” he said at the Democratic Convention in Boston.