Politicians sign off on bill for 100 percent maritime, air cargo inspection

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 7/30/2007

WASHINGTON—In a decision which will have a major impact on how cargo moves through the global supply chain, the United States Senate and House of Representatives recently signed off on the conference report for—“H.R. 1 Implementing the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007,which will significantly alter how maritime and air cargo is inspected.

The bill calls for 100 percent scanning of maritime cargo—before it is loaded onto vessels in foreign ports heading for the United States—to be required within the next five years (although the Department of Homeland Security may extend the deadline by two-year increments, if necessary). It also calls for scanning all cargo on passenger planes within the next three years.

As of press time, the bill is now in the hands of Congress, where it is expected to vote on final language prior to it being sent to President George W. Bush. The Senate approved the bill by an 85-8 margin on Thursday, July 26, while the House vote the following day was 371-40.

The bill will require specific annual benchmarks for the percentage of maritime cargo containers headed for the U.S. that are scanned at a foreign port, an analysis of how to best incorporate existing maritime security initiatives, including the Container Security Initiative and C-TPAT, and an analysis of the scanning equipment, personnel and technology needed to reach the objective of 100 percent container scanning, among others. And on the air cargo side, the Transportation Security Administration will be charged with establishing a system to screen all cargo transported on passenger aircraft operated by domestic or foreign air carriers to ensure the safety of all such passenger carrying aircraft.

While the drumbeat for 100 percent container inspection continues, these measures have been largely been rejected in the past on the basis that they would be impossible to implement without harming domestic and global economy operations.  This belief has differing views, though.

U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson, said in a statement that when H.R. 1 is law, U.S.-bound cargo would be scanned in a commerce-friendly manner. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in a letter to the House that this legislation “would have a crippling effect on global trade without significantly improving security.”

The five-year deadline for maritime cargo scanning, however, removes some of the immediacy and uncertainty from 100 percent inspection, says King Rogers, executive vice president of  SC-integrity, a provider of security technology and information services.

“As a country, we have to take some correct initiatives to ensure the integrity of what is coming into our ports,” Rogers told Logistics Management. “While none of us likes the idea of incurring additional costs in importation, inspection—
however defined—is a good thing for our nation’s security and the integrity of our supply chains.”

Rogers notes that the five-year deadline should be enough time to get the components of 100 percent container scanning “all together” and, if not, the DHS provision for a two-year delay will then come into play.

While the five-year deadline is a “great concept,” the transfer from paper to reality could be far more difficult, says Captain Joseph Ahlstrom, professor of maritime transportation at SUNY Maritime College.

“Everyone is on the same page when it comes to security; they all want 100 percent scanning,” notes Ahlstrom. “But are we able to do that? The other thing people are waiting to learn is exactly what exactly we will be screening for. Is it chemical agents? Nuclear agents? Some sort of explosives? 100 percent screening of containers where containers can be inspected is one thing, but I would much rather see some sort of system where an alarm will be triggered if there is something suspicious in the containers as they go through.”

Ahlstrom cautioned that this decision to go with a five-year plan should not be viewed as a setback, because it is more important that this is done correctly than quickly.

“If we have more of a finished structure as to what exactly everyone has to do, and then provide enough time and resources to do it—which is being done already to some extent through various grants and projects, it puts us in a better position,” he said.

While Rogers and Ahlstrom feel, this bill has potential to make supply chains more secure, Kelby Woodard, president of Trade Innovations, a supply chain security and customs consultancy, has a much different slant. 

“What does Congress [and the Senate] hope to gain by this legislation?” asks Woodard.  “They certainly are not using our hard earned tax dollars to secure the homeland in the most logical and effective way possible.  The requirement for 100% scanning…is essentially a ‘feel good’ measure.”

At the end of the day, says Woodard, Congress will have only “served to have added complexity to global trade, overloaded CBP with useless information, strained the port infrastructures of the world, damaged our international credibility, created a security policy that is weakened by inflexibility ...and made themselves feel a whole lot better in the process.”

 And he points out that the potential implications of this bill on global trade are enormous, citing how, the export community should “brace themselves for retaliatory actions on the part of other countries that may enact similar regulations regarding containers leaving the U.S.