100 Percent Cargo Inspection: Part Deux

Congress apparently didn't read my article of April 7th, 2007 on the practical difficulties of 100 percent cargo inspection called for under House bill HR-1.    HR-1 requires 100 percent cargo inspection of all air and ocean cargo.   This week the bill passed through the US Senate and now awaits final language refinement prior to submission to President Bush for signature (or veto).This bill has good intention but is practically impossible to implement near term. 

Forget that we don't have the current technology to perform the scanning.  Forget that there is no clearly defined mandate for what's to be scanned.  Forget that it will take a very long while to figure out the union rules on how this will take place.

The one concession I can see in the bill the Senate passed is that rather than completing implementation of this deal by the end of 2010, it has a 5 year implementation window with the ability of the Department of Homeland Security to extend the deadline 2 years.

What I am interested in is whether this will constitute a practical restraint of trade and a defacto  tax on imports. Costs for inspection will find their way into the costs of goods.  The practicality of the inspection activity will largely depend on quality of scanning, what we are specifically looking for, and how fast the scans can take place.  If implemented tomorrow, it would gridlock our ports and strangle trade.

The ILWU and ILA work rules on how scanning will take place in ocean ports, as well as how it will be handled at airports will take some time to work out as well. Security is important to society.  We need it.   However, what is the economic impact of a 100 percent inspection?  Once again I think reality and politics are at odds.

clipped from www.logisticsmgmt.com Politicians sign off on bill for 100 percent maritime, air cargo inspection Jeff Berman, Senior Editor Logistics Management July 30, 2007 WASHINGTON —In a decision which will have a major impact on how cargo moves through the global supply chain, the United States Senate and House of Representatives recently signed off on the conference report for—“H.R. 1 Implementing the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007,which will significantly alter how maritime and air cargo is inspected. The bill calls for 100 percent scanning of maritime cargo—before it is loaded onto vessels in foreign ports heading for the United States—to be required within the next five years (although the Department of Homeland Security may extend the deadline by two-year increments, if necessary). It also calls for scanning all cargo on passenger planes within the next three years. As of press time, the bill is now in the hands of Congress, where it is expected to vote on final language prior to it being sent to President George W. Bush. The Senate approved the bill by an 85-8 margin on Thursday, July 26, while the House vote the following day was 371-40. The bill will require specific annual benchmarks for the percentage of maritime cargo containers headed for the U.S. that are scanned at a foreign port, an analysis of how to best incorporate existing maritime security initiatives, including the Container Security Initiative and C-TPAT, and an analysis of the scanning equipment, personnel and technology needed to reach the objective of 100 percent container scanning, among others. And on the air cargo side, the Transportation Security Administration will be charged with establishing a system to screen all cargo transported on passenger aircraft operated by domestic or foreign air carriers to ensure the safety of all such passenger carrying aircraft.

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