E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Importers attack US bill to scan containers
All cargo entering the US on ships would have to undergo thorough screening at foreign ports under new legislation agreed by key congressional committees - a move attacked on Wednesday by the shipping industry as a recipe for chaos.

The Senate and House homeland security committees reached a deal late Tuesday on implementing recommendations made by the 9/11 commission established to investigate the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.

US cargo importers warned that the measure would threaten already congested cargo systems with chaos.
US cargo importers warned that the measure would threaten already congested cargo systems with chaos. The legislation, which still needs full congressional approval, breaks with the principle followed since the 9/11 attacks, which required just containers seen as posing a risk to be examined.

Stewart Verdery, a former senior Bush administration Homeland Security official, said the measure would be very difficult to implement because technology did not exist to conduct such comprehensive scans. James Carafano, a homeland security expert at the Heritage Foundation, agreed, saying the requirement was “political theatre” that would antagonise US allies.

But Democrats painted the legislation as a victory. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, called it a bill “to make the American people safer.”

The bill calls for all air freight to be examined within three years and all sea containers within five years.
The bill has been supported by Congress members who believe previous legislation such as last year’s Safe Ports Act has been too weak in addressing the risk that a terrorist attack might be mounted on the US from within a shipping container.

It calls for all air freight to be examined within three years and all sea containers within five years, although it allows for extensions to the deadlines.

Erik Autor, vice-president for international trade at the National Retail Federation, said there would be significant technical challenges in meeting the bill’s requirements. He questioned, for example, whether the Department of Homeland Security had the resources to examine promptly the millions of images that would be created annually of containers scanned at overseas ports.

A homeland security official said the legislation could also prevent some eastern European countries from participating in the US visa waiver programme. Under the legislation, countries with visa refusal rates higher than 10 per cent, which include Poland, would have difficulty signing up for the programme.
Posted by: lotp 2007-07-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=194510