A powerful group of 70 US trade associations has urged the Department of Homeland Security to permanently withdraw the 100% container scanning requirement, rather than simply delay it every two years.
The group, which includes shipper organisation the National Industrial Transportation League and several other trade, transport and shipper organisations, welcomed Secretary for Homeland Security Jeh Johnson’s decision to delay the implementation of 100% scanning of inbound containers until 2016.
A powerful group of 70 US trade associations has urged the Department of Homeland Security to permanently withdraw the 100% container scanning requirement, rather than simply delay it every two years.
The group, which includes shipper organisation the National Industrial Transportation League and several other trade, transport and shipper organisations, welcomed Secretary for Homeland Security Jeh Johnson’s decision to delay the implementation of 100% scanning of inbound containers until 2016.
However, in a letter, they urged Mr Johnson to consider removing the requirement altogether.
“We fully support your waiver; however, instead of going through this exercise every two years, we urge you and the administration to recommend to the Congress that the statutory 100% container scanning requirement be repealed,” the organisations said.
“That would be the most appropriate way to address this flawed provision and allow the department, industry and our trading partners to focus on real solutions to address any security gaps that remain in the global supply chain.
“You would have our full support for such a proposal.”
Instead of scanning 100% of inbound containers, the group favours the existing risk-based strategy where containers considered high-risk are screened.
“This strategy does not impair the efficiency of the global supply chain,” the group said.
“The risk-based strategy enables Customs and Border Protection to use state-of-the-art screening systems and scanning technology to identify and thoroughly inspect any and all containers that it finds to be high risk or that warrant a closer examination.
“This strategy is fully embraced by industry as well as our foreign trading partners and has proven to be highly effective.”
The group also identified several issues that the 100% scanning requirement fails to address, including what exactly is meant by the term scanned.
Other questions included what standards will be applied to the scanning technology, who will pay for the scanning equipment, who will maintain and operate the equipment and what protocols will be used in foreign ports when a container is scanned?
The letter follows Mr Johnson’s decision to implement a second 24-month extension to the start date of the requirement.
Mr Johnson said it was highly improbable that the Department for Homeland Security would be able to fully comply with the “unfunded” 100% scanning mandate even in the long term.
He went on to say the requirement was “hugely expensive” and “not the best use of taxpayer resources to meet this country’s port security and homeland-security needs”.
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