DHS Redirects Scanning to Focus on “High Risk” Trade Corridors

The Department of Homeland Security has a new approach for testing container security, but critics are warning that the new approach could put it at odds with a law that requires scanning all incoming ocean containers.

In an article on the Shipping Digest website, Ari Natter says the new approach is based on remarks DHS secretary Michael Chertoff made prior to this year’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“The requirement to have 100 percent scanning of containers overseas is not a realistic requirement,” Chertoff said at a press conference. “I think at some point as that deadline approaches, Congress is going to wind up taking a second look at what is realistic.”

“In August, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced it would be canceling a test of 100 percent scanning at the Port of Singapore that was scheduled to begin in the second half of 2008,” Natter says. “The port, which handled more than 27 million TEUs last year, was one of just six ports scheduled to participate in Phase 1 of the Secure Freight Initiative, the Department of Homeland Security’s feasibility test of 100 percent scanning.”

But critics are warning that the decision might run afoul of the law. “The unilateral decision to ignore 100 percent scanning runs afoul of the act and puts our ports at risk,” Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, wrote to Chertoff in August. “By what authority did you determine that you could ignore the congressionally mandated 100 percent cargo screening requirement in favor of a ‘high-risk trade corridor?’”

To read the full article, click here: http://www.shippingdigest.com/news/article.asp?sid=5485&ltype=security