SAN FRANCISCO—While a handful of major U.S. senators are seizing the issue of ocean container inspection as their own, shippers are fearful that some of our key trading partners may not only resist it…but retaliate.

 “There are several countries in the EU that have suggested that they will do business elsewhere if our inspection procedures become too severe,” said Ezra Frinkin,  spokesman for the West Coast Waterfront Coalition. “The 24-hour manifest rule was bad enough for many of them. Any more laws, and we may see some retaliation against U.S. exporters, too.”

 The call for new legislation requiring imported cargo to be monitored “from the moment it is packed into containers abroad” is being sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg D-N.J. Three other prominent Democratic senators from the region are joining him in calling for approval of the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey Port Security Task Force Implementation Act.

 In a politically-charged press conference held at Port Elizabeth, N.J. earlier this week, Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y, and Chuck Schumer D-N.Y. shared the dais to bash the Bush administration for having a “pre-9/11 mindset.”

 The criticism comes in the wake of an announcement made by Customs and Border Protection that it may not meet a 2012 deadline for screening all containerized cargo for radiological and nuclear weapons.

 The new bill new bill -- S. 3174 – will enforce a ban on container shipments failing to meet new minimum standards from entering U.S. ports. It also mandates that each U.S. gateway initiate its own regional response and recovery plan.

 The SAFE Port Act of 2006 called for the Department of Homeland Security to develop minimum cargo security standards by March 2007. This was followed by a congressional “9/11 Commission Implementation Act” charging DHS to issue a rule on a standard lock for all shipping containers this year.

 For some security experts, however, much of this represents ad hoc responses to a problem requiring more research.

 “While I’m delighted the government is paying attention to the issue, they are not going about the inspections in a completely sensible way,” said Bob Frucci, director of domestic business development for CGM Applied Security Technologies in Farmingdale, New Jersey. “While the containers can examined at the point of origin, they can still be tampered with during transit. Security standards throughout the supply chain have yet to be determined.”

 Furthermore, said Frucci. It’s going to be expensive.

 “Where is the money going to come from?” he asked. “The cost of doing international business is being driven up by a lot of other factors now. This will just be another layer for shippers to consider.”