The United States Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs & Trade Relations in the US Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP), Michael Mullen, has publicly expressed concerns over the effectiveness of 100% scanning of all containers bound for the US.
Speaking to an international audience at a conference in Luxembourg last week, Mr Mullen explained that the CBP, in its forthcoming report to Congress on the recent trials of 100% scanning at Southampton and at ports in Pakistan and Honduras, will highlight a number of key emerging concerns that could have a huge influence on the final report:
The cost of buying, operating and maintaining the technology, which CBP considers extremely expensive in terms of hardware and staff operating costs;
- The equipment proving to be sensitive and unreliable in changing weather conditions;
- The quality of the images transferred back to the US proving inadequate to allow any form of analysis;
- Concerns over trade facilitation impacts, particularly on large scale transhipments.
He further added that current evidence supported the idea that investment in more traditional risk-based security initiatives would provide a more workable solution and reduce the pressures placed on trade capacity and cargo flows. However, he added that scanning had a key role to play in high risk trade corridors.
SITPRO's Chief Executive, Malcolm McKinnon, said, "SITPRO is heartened by Mr Mullen’s statement and thinks this will greatly assist the international trading community in the UK, encourage AEO status and help to promote mutual recognition between Europe and the US as the main basis for a security programme."
SITPRO has argued that 100% scanning is a disproportionate and costly measure on the movements of goods, which abandons the risk management principle that underpins modern Customs management of the border and calls into question the benefit of becoming an Authorised Economic Operator (AEO).
Mr Mullen is due to speak tomorrow at a World Customs Organization (WCO) conference on the future of 100% scanning of maritime cargo containers, where it is expected that he will reiterate these views. Congress is due to comment on the report from the CBP in Autumn 2008.
Notes for Editors
SITPRO, the UK’s Trade Facilitation Agency, was established in 1970 to simplify international trade and much of its work has focussed upon improving the procedures at ports and borders, looking at issues such as improving the arrangements for inspecting goods at the border and streamlining the submission of data to government. Since the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001 highlighted the need for greater vigilance, SITPRO has also been campaigning for the application of trade facilitation principles to security controls that will enhance security without impeding trade.
SITPRO is a non-departmental public body funded by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and undertakes policy work at national, European and international levels. For further information visit SITPRO's website at http://www.sitpro.org.uk/.
SITPRO News Release - 9 June 2008
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