03 December 2003
U.S. Expands Container Security Initiative to South Africa
U.S. customs agents in Durban to screen cargo for terrorist weapons, U.S. says
South Africa has become the first African country to join a U.S. anti-terrorism initiative designed to secure cargo containers, the U.S. customs agency says.
In a December 2 news release, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bureau in the Department of Homeland Security said that the port of Durban started implementing the container security initiative (CSI) that day under a declaration of principles signed by CBP and the South Africa Revenue Service in June.
CSI is intended to prevent the smuggling of terrorists or terrorist weapons into the United States in ocean-going cargo containers by providing for the deployment of U.S. customs officials to other countries' ports. U.S. customs agents working in those ports target high-risk U.S.-bound containers prior to shipment for inspection by their local counterparts. Under the program, a participating country can send its customs officers to major U.S. ports to target cargo destined for that nation's ports.
Durban is the 17th international port joining CSI.
Initially, the Bush administration aimed to secure cooperation from only the 20 international ports shipping the largest volume of cargo to the United States. However, in 2003 it started expanding CSI to other ports from which substantial U.S.-bound cargo is shipped.
Following is the text of the news release:
(begin text)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Government of South Africa Becomes First African Nation to Implement their Container Security Initiative,
Begins Targeting and Pre-screening Cargo Destined for U.S.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Robert C. Bonner and Pravin J. Gordhan, Commissioner of the South Africa Revenue Service, announced that the Container Security Initiative (CSI), an anti-terrorism initiative to secure cargo, became operational today at the port of Durban.
CBP and the South Africa Revenue Service signed a Declaration of Principles to participate in the Container Security Initiative (CSI) in June 2003.
"By implementing the Container Security Initiative, the government of South Africa is 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."
As part of the CSI program, CBP will deploy a team of officers to the port of Durban to work with host government personnel to target high-risk cargo containers destined for the United States. Officials of the South Africa Revenue Service are responsible for screening any container identified jointly with CBP officers as a potential terrorist risk.
The port of Durban is the 17th CSI port to become operational since CSI was proposed in January 2002. It is the first CSI port in Africa.
CSI is operational in the following ports: Rotterdam, LeHavre, Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Antwerp, Singapore, Yokohama, Hong Kong, Göteborg, Felixstowe, Genoa, La Spezia, Busan, Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, and Durban.
CSI is the only formal program in operation today that is designed to detect and deter terrorists from exploiting the vulnerabilities of containerized cargo.
CSI is also a reciprocal program. CBP offers CSI-participating countries the opportunity to send their customs officers to major U.S. ports to target cargo that is exported to their country via ocean containers. CBP will also share its information and pre-arrival data on a bilateral basis with its CSI partners. Sharing of information is intended to be a reciprocal process.
Under the reciprocity principle, the government of South Africa is planning to station customs personnel in the United States. Japan and Canada currently 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.
Containerized shipping is a critical component of global trade because most of the international trade moves or is transported in cargo containers. About 90 percent of all world cargo moves by container. Almost half of incoming trade (by value) arrives in the United States by containers on board container ships. Nearly 7 million cargo containers arrive and are offloaded at U.S. seaports each year.
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. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, now within the Department of Homeland Security, is continuing to implement CSI at major ports around the world. Under the CSI program, a team of officers from CBP is deployed to work with host nation counterparts to target high-risk cargo containers.
Governments representing 19 of the top 20 ports have agreed to implement CSI. The top 20 ports are points of passage for approximately 68 percent of cargo containers shipped to the United States.
CSI is expanding to strategic locations beyond the 20 initial major ports. The governments of Malaysia and Sweden have already joined CSI. In Europe, CBP is looking to expand CSI to at least 11 additional ports to include Gioia Tauro, Italy.
"As part of CSI Phase 2, 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. CSI Phase 2 will enable us to extend port security protection to more than 80 percent of all containers coming to the United States casting the CSI safety net even further," Commissioner Bonner said.
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.
"The primary purpose of CSI is to protect the global trading system and the trade lanes between CSI ports and the U.S.," Commissioner Bonner said.
The CSI initiative supports the "Cooperative G8 Action on Transport Security" adopted by G8 [Group of Eight] in June 2002.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security that unifies U.S. Customs, Immigration, and Agriculture Inspectors and the U.S. Border Patrol.
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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=December&x=20031203153909ikceinawza0.2778284&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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