U.S. CUSTOMS? CSI STAFF DEPLOYMENT, PILOTS UNDERWAY

U.S. CUSTOMSÆ CSI STAFF DEPLOYMENT, PILOTS UNDERWAY    U.S. Customs will soon deploy about 40 staff to Singapore, Antwerp and Hong Kong to begin the pilot phase of its Container Security Initiative in these major container seaports.
   The Container Security Initiative (CSI), which was launched earlier this year, pushes container security away from U.S. ports of entry and closer to cargo origin ports and load centers, and calls for advance cargo manifest information filed to the agency prior to loading on vessels overseas.
   CSI also places four to 12 U.S. Customs inspectors in strategic overseas ports to assist in identifying high-risk containers. Rotterdam already has a team of U.S. Customs inspectors in the port.
   More than a half-dozen countries in Europe and Asia have signed agreements with U.S. Customs to participate in CSI, covering 15 of the world’s mega-container ports, which handle more than 50 percent of the 6 million containers bound for the United States each year.
   The pilots are expected to last six months “to work out best practices” in the CSI ports. “This is not a cookie-cutter approach,” said Don Shruhan, assistant commissioner for U.S. Customs’ Office of International Affairs, during the agency’s third annual Trade Symposium in Washington Thursday. “Every port is different.”
   U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said at a press conference that his agency would pursue CSI agreements with other trading nations, such as South Korea, United Kingdom and Spain, in the coming months. The agency will also spread CSI to other ports in countries that have signed on to the initiative.
   By the end of 2003, the agency should be able to pre-screen 85 to 90 percent of U.S.-bound containers, Bonner said.