Secure Freight Initiative expands to Hong Kong

Secure Freight Initiative expands to Hong Kong

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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has officially included the Port of Hong Kong in its Secure Freight Initiative demonstration program for imaging and radiation scanning ocean containers before loading on U.S.-bound vessels.
   Customs and Border Protection, which is in charge of the test program, said Friday that Hong Kong initially will participate on a limited basis at one terminal.
   The pilot program mandated by Congress is underway at Port Qasim in Pakistan, and Puerto Cort's, Honduras, and will commence later this year at the Port of Southampton in the United Kingdom. Department officials had previously said the Southampton demonstration would begin this summer. CBP has arranged with governments in those countries to use non-intrusive inspection equipment to capture radiation readings and images on all containers entering the port by truck. The electronic files are then transmitted to CBP officers at the port and the National Targeting Center in Virginia for security risk review. The three ports are small or, in the case of Southampton, managed by a single terminal operator.
   Testing will also take place on a limited basis at the Brani terminal in the Port of Singapore, the Gamman terminal in Port Busan, South Korea, and Oman’s Port Salalah. The equipment will be set up on certain high-volume truck lanes or elsewhere on the dock in an attempt to capture dual readings of transshipped containers coming off feeder vessels.
   Last week Congress passed legislation that would supersede the Secure Freight Initiative and require automated inspections of all ocean containers overseas within five years before the pilot program to test the feasibility of the concept has been completed.
   Hong Kong actually laid the groundwork for 100 percent inspection as a private sector initiative, but was not originally included in the pilot program because of problems with the accuracy of radiation reads. The integrated scanning approach — which combines radiation and X-ray technology in one spot — was first demonstrated by Hutchison Port Holding’s Hong Kong International Terminal, Modern Terminal and their technology partner, San Diego-based SAIC. Together they proved in 2005 that a system could simultaneously collect physical evidence on containers as trucks pulled into the terminal at roughly 10 mph to 15 mph. But the testing was limited to data capture and was not analyzed, transmitted to customs authorities or used to single out trucks with contraband for follow-up inspections.
   DHS did not embrace the idea until Congress got involved in the Dubai Ports World controversy over managing U.S. port facilities last year. Hong Kong was left out of the pilot program because DHS technicians discovered that background levels of radiation from the wharf’s cement were extremely high because the builders used granite instead of limestone in the cement mix. Modern has since dug up the cement and replaced the pad with a new, sterile concrete that won’t set off as many nuisance alarms on the radiation portal monitors.
   Hong Kong does more business with the United States than any other port in the world. In fiscal year 2006, it processed more than 1.3 million shipments bound for the United States, equal to about 13.0 percent of all arriving shipments, according to CBP figures.