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Scan-all
becomes law
Date: August 6, 2007
By R.G.
Edmonson and Bruce Barnard / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
WASHINGTON -- President Bush signed the
Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 into
law on Friday at a White House ceremony.
The law includes a provision that all
U.S.-bound containers will be scanned at foreign ports. It sets a
July 2012 deadline to accomplish 100 percent scanning of
boxes.
Scan-all has been opposed by the
administration as well as the trade industry.
In his remarks at the signing ceremony, Bush
said, “I will also continue to work with Congress to ensure the
workability of the cargo-screening provisions in a way that
increases our vigilance on homeland security while ensuring the
continuance of vital commerce.”
Prior to the signing ceremony, the European
Union issued a strongly worded attack on the scan-all plan, saying
it would disrupt global trade without reducing the threat of
terrorism.
European Customs Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs
said the unilateral action would force EU businesses and taxpayers
to foot the bill for U.S. security.
“The legislation would require major
restructuring of EU ports,” Kovacs said. It also would “create a
disproportionate burden on EU traders without proven benefits of
security” and give American companies an unfair advantage over their
European rivals.
Kovacs said he regretted that Washington did
not await the results of pilot programs EU and U.S. customs are
about to launch before pressing ahead with the
legislation.
“Experts on both sides of the Atlantic have
already considered this measure to be of no real benefit when it
comes to security while it would disrupt trade and cost legitimate
EU and U.S. businesses a lot of time and money.”
“Instead of a 100 percent scanning, I
advocate applying risk analysis for the selection of cargo
containers to be checked prior to leaving the EU for the U.S.,”
Kovacs suggested, striking a balance between trade facilitation and
security.
An estimated 1.8 million TEUs of containers
were shipped from the EU to the U.S. in 2006.
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