05 June 2003
Britain Implements U.S. Container Security Initiative
(Joint customs teams checking U.S.-bound containers at Felixstowe) (880) As part of the Container Security Initiative (CSI), U.S. customs officers have begun working with their British counterparts at the port of Felixstowe to screen U.S.-bound shipping containers identified as a potential terrorist risk. "I applaud the British government's strong support in helping to make a safer, more secure world trading system," U.S. Customs Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said. The CSI is a reciprocal program that sends U.S. customs officers abroad and brings foreign customs officers to American ports. Eighteen ports have agreed to participate: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Rotterdam, Pusan, Bremerhaven, Tokyo, Genoa, Yantian, Antwerp, Nagoya, Le Havre, Hamburg, La Spezia, Felixstowe, Algeciras, Kobe, and Yokohama. Felixstowe is the 13th to become operational. Following is a press release with more information: (begin text) U.S. Department of Homeland Security Washington, D.C. Customs and Border Protection www.cbp.gov UNITED KINGDOM IMPLEMENTS THE CONTAINER SECURITY INITIATIVE AND BEGINS TO TARGET AND PRE-SCREEN CARGO DESTINED FOR U.S. (Tuesday, June 03, 2003) Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Robert C. Bonner today announced that the Container Security Initiative (CSI) will be operational at the port of Felixstowe for cargo containers destined for U.S. ports. CBP and the United Kingdom signed a declaration of principles on December 9, 2002. As part of the CSI program, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has deployed a team of CBP officers to the port of Felixstowe to work targeting high-risk cargo containers destined for the United States. United Kingdom Customs officials, working with CBP officers, are responsible for screening any containers identified as a potential terrorist risk. The port of Felixstowe is the 13th CSI port to become operational. It joins the already operational CSI ports of Rotterdam, LeHavre, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Antwerp, Singapore, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Göteborg, Vancouver, Montreal, and Halifax. "I applaud the British government's strong support in helping to make a safer, more secure world trading system. CSI is essential in securing an indispensable, but vulnerable link in the chain of global trade: containerized shipping," Commissioner Bonner said. "CSI is the only formal program in operation today that is designed to detect and deter terrorists from exploiting the vulnerabilities of containerized cargo. We are getting CSI implemented in all of the ports that have signed on. We will continue to deploy teams to other participating ports as quickly as possible." CSI is a reciprocal program. CBP offers CSI-participating countries the opportunity to send their customs officers to our major ports to target cargo that is exported to their country via ocean containers. CBP will also share its intelligence and pre-arrival information on a bilateral basis with its CSI partners. Sharing of information is intended to be a reciprocal process. Japan is now the second CSI partner country to station customs personnel in U.S. ports as part of the CSI program. Japanese customs personnel are stationed at the port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. Canadian Customs personnel are stationed at Newark and Seattle. CSI is an initiative that was developed by U.S. Customs, now U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Now within the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is continuing to implement CSI at major ports around the world. Under the CSI program, CBP officers are deployed to work with host nation counterparts to target high-risk cargo containers. Its purpose is to protect containerized shipping from exploitation by terrorists. Containerized shipping is a critical component of global trade because most of the international trade moves or is transported in cargo containers. To date, 18 of the top 20 ports have agreed to join CSI and are at various stages of implementation. These ports are points of passage for approximately two-thirds of cargo containers shipped to the United States. They include (by container cargo volume): Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, Rotterdam, Pusan, Bremerhaven, Tokyo, Genoa, Yantian, Antwerp, Nagoya, Le Havre, Hamburg, La Spezia, Felixstowe, Algeciras, Kobe, and Yokohama. CSI consists of four core elements: 1) using intelligence and automated information to identify and target high-risk containers; (2) pre-screening those containers identified as high-risk, at the port of departure, before they arrive at U.S. ports; (3) using detection technology to quickly pre-screen high-risk containers; and (4) using smarter, tamper-evident containers. Each year, over 48 million full cargo containers move between the world's major seaports and more than 6 million containers arrive in the United States by ship. "Now that we have nearly achieved our goal for CSI at most of the top 20 ports, we will be expanding CSI to other ports that ship substantial amounts of cargo to the United States, and that have the infrastructure and technology in place to participate in the program," Commissioner Bonner said. Most recently, the governments of Malaysia and Sweden have joined CSI. In Europe, CBP is looking to expand CSI to at least 11 additional ports. The CSI initiative supports the "Cooperative G8 Action on Transport Security" adopted by G8 in June 2002. (end text) (Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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