NV0-GAC PRESSES U.S. SECURITY OFFICIALS FOR AMS CONNECTION

NV0-GAC PRESSES U.S. SECURITY OFFICIALS FOR AMS CONNECTION    A group of leading non-vessel-operating common carriers told the National Infrastructure Security Committee, that the industry is ready to provide the U.S. government with crucial shipper and consignee information on their inbound cargo consolidations.
   The hitch, however, is that the NVOs would require direct access to Customs’ Automated Manifest System. The industry, while technologically prepared, currently doesn’t have this capability in AMS.
   “Contrary to popular rumors, NVOs do not operate out of phone booths with a phone directory in one hand and a computer in the other — they used to say typewriter,” said Carlos Rodriguez, counsel for the newly formed NVO-Government Affairs Conference. “NVOs in the NVO-GAC are large companies for the most part with sophisticated technology delivery systems and major global distribution networks and collectively employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.”
   The NVO-GAC was formed in late December in response to seaport and maritime security legislation making its way through Congress, and a recent Customs’ action in the Port of Houston that called for the ocean carriers to obtain NVOs’ shipper and consignee information for the agency’s manifest analysis.
   The NVO-GAC’s participants include large forwarder-affiliated NVOs, such as Kuehne & Nagel, Danzas AEI, Emery, Eagle Global Logistics, Exel, Panalpina, Union Transport and BDP Transport, and neutral operators, such as Shipco Transport, CaroTrans International and NACA Logistics Group.
   “Obviously, the port security bill and the customs action underscored how the NVO as a party in the trenches on the front line is a key player in the flow of information,” Rodriguez said. “The issue is to either get involved in the solution or have others do it for you. The NVO, of course, has opted for the former.”
   Although Customs physically exams less than 2 percent of inbound containerized cargo, the agency asserts that its computer system efficiently uses AMS data to target suspicious goods.
   But the NVO-GAC pointed out to the National Infrastructure Security Committee that there’s a gaping hole in AMS, because it does not contain shipper and consignee data related to NVO cargo. The system only identifies the NVO as the shipper and its agent as the consignee.
   While the NVOs support stronger port and maritime security measures, they do not want to provide “sensitive” commercial information to the government through the ocean carriers. “We are here today to state that the NVO industry is ready to provide carrier type information directly on the AMS system,” Rodriguez told the committee.
   The NVO-GAC also wants Customs to restart its initiative to develop electronic access for NVOs to file their transportation data though the Automated Export System.
   Over a year ago, several NVO-GAC members participated in a Customs working group to lay the groundwork for the AES-NVO module. Rollout of the AES-NVO module is on hold due to budget and systems priority considerations at Customs. “It is time to resurrect the Customs-NVOCC working group,” Rodriguez said.