'Smart' cargo containers coming to a port near you

The move is part of a homeland security effort

By Dan Verton

October 31, 2003 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - NEW YORK -- As part of the Department of Homeland Security's Container Security Initiative (CSI), a select group of shipping companies next month will begin to use new "smart" containers equipped with high-tech devices that will enable officials to determine if cargo has been tampered with prior to it entering a U.S. port.
Although cargo shipments destined for U.S. ports won't be required to use the new containers, the U.S. government is pushing greater use of the technologies by private shipping and transportation companies, said Douglas Browning, the deputy commissioner for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the DHS.
In addition, the top 19 megaports outside the U.S. have agreed to inspect U.S.-bound containers before they're shipped out. Plans call for another 28 ports to be part of that program by this time next year.
Browning also said that the 24-hour advanced electronic manifest reporting rule that the U.S. put into place is working well and that Canada will be issuing a similar rule early next year. The European Union and Mexico are now studying it.
"We've received more than 7 million bills of lading, and of those, we have only had to issue 600 denials of lading," said Browning.
The CBP has also issued a proposed rule to require advanced electronic notification of changes to cargo before it can enter the U.S., Browning said. "The advance collection of this data directly impacts our ability to keep terrorists and the implements of terror from crossing our border," he said.
Meanwhile, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, respectively, have asked Undersecretary for Border and Transportation Security Asa Hutchinson to explain what the DHS sees as flaws in the government's efforts to identify "high-risk" containers.

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