U.S. Customs Agents To Be Stationed in Le Havre
The Port of Le Havre Authority is ready to accept a team of U.S. Customs inspectors working closely with French Customs officers under an agreement between the French and United States Governments that makes France’s most important port for container traffic part of the Container Security Initiative (CSI) of U.S. Customs. The agreement was announced today in Europe by Robert Bonner, Commissioner of the U.S. Customs Service, and Alain Cadiou, Director General of French Customs and Excise Service. The CSI is designed to enhance the security of global maritime shipping. “Security measures are of major concern to the Port of Le Havre and we are seeking to harmonize our efforts with other European ports,” said Jean-Marc Lacave, Executive Director of the Port of Le Havre Authority.
New U.S. Port IDs Cause Concerns i
As many as 1 million U.S. seaport and ship workers must undergo background checks and obtain biometric identification cards as part of a federal program aimed at improving maritime security, according to Reuters. The credentials will supplement, rather than replace, the security cards and clearances workers already must have, sowing doubts about the program among shipping companies and port operators, industry officials said at the Maritime Security Council's annual conference in Fort Lauderdale this week. Enrollment in the U.S. Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, called TWIC, is scheduled to open next week at the Port of Wilmington in Delaware and expand to all U.S. seaports by August 2008.
Security Program to Cost Ports
Port operators and freight companies will have to pay up for tightened security checks that will extend full background checks to all workers entering U.S. maritime facilities and vessels by the end of the year, industry sources said on Tuesday. Industry sources say they are concerned over the high enrollment and electronic hardware costs associated with the roll-out of high-security biometric identification cards in the next phase of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. Homeland Security will begin to require security screening of all workers with unescorted access to ports at the end of the year, raising the number subject to checks to 850,000 from about 400,000 workers, who were required to be screened in April in the TWIC's first phase.
