(The following article by John Mintz and Don Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website on November 21.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Department of Homeland Security unveiled new anti-terrorism rules yesterday requiring trucking firms, air cargo companies and railway shippers to submit vast amounts of electronic data about their deliveries before they will be allowed to enter the United States.
Trucking industry executives said the new demands, which resemble rules imposed on maritime shipping companies last year, could gum up imports into the United States for the automobile industry and other sectors that operate on an efficient “just-in-time” delivery schedule. Previously many trucking companies communicated with the government via handwritten notes.
But Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who made the “advance manifest” rules public before an industry group yesterday, said they balance the need to thwart terrorists seeking to smuggle in weapons of mass destruction with U.S. industry’s requirement for the rapid movement of goods.
“We could pass regulations that would so tightly constrict commerce that our economy would slow to a crawl,” Ridge said. “That would be a terrorist’s dream.”
Railroads and ship lines are largely unaffected by the new rules because they already have the new procedures in place.
But the American Trucking Associations (ATA) said yesterday the new procedures are likely to cause confusion and delays on the Canadian and Mexican borders. One reason, ATA said, is that truck drivers commonly are in touch by radio with their companies’ dispatchers, but probably not with the cargo brokers that will communicate with the Homeland Security Department.
Under the new rules, Homeland Security’s Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must receive the required data — detailing what goods are being moved and the identities of shippers and receivers — under varying schedules depending on the industry. For freight imported by rail, for example, the data must arrive at least two hours before the cargo arrives at the U.S. border.
The information is to be transmitted to a CBP data center in Northern Virginia called the National Targeting Center. Its 175 analysts will merge the information with other historical data about freight movement, along with data from law enforcement and intelligence agencies. A shipment seen as anomalous or prompting alarm will be stopped and inspected.
“They’ll look for trends and red flags,” Ridge said. The CBP — a blend of former customs, immigration and agriculture inspectors — also examines cargo randomly and uses X-ray and other machines to look for suspicious loads.
Officials are using incentives to persuade shippers, cargo brokers, importers and exporters to pre-certify themselves with Homeland Security, allowing officials to advise them on securing their facilities and screening employees. Under the new procedures, pre-certified trucking firms must transmit their data to Homeland Security 30 minutes before a load arrives at the border, while the deadline is one hour before arrival for uncertified truckers.
The new rules will apply to cargo arriving in the United States, as well as freight sent overseas, to help foreign governments track potential risks.
The rules are required by a trade law approved by Congress last year. For months numerous trade groups asked officials to ease various rules, and in some cases they agreed.
In a victory for package express carriers such as FedEx and United Parcel Service, officials decided that letters and “flat documents” of fewer than 16 ounces sent by air would be exempt from the full reporting rules. Providing data on each of the thousands of small letters and packages on each of their planes would have been onerous, officials agreed.
The new rules will go into effect in 15 days, but CBP Commissioner Robert Bonner, who is overseeing the program, said they will be phased in over a number of months to accommodate the complications involving each industry sector.
Bill Graves, the American Trucking Associations’ president, said in a statement that he has “concerns” over truckers’ ability to communicate quickly with CBP once their loads have been cleared for border crossing. “Motor carriers need a ‘go’ or ‘no go’ decision as soon as possible to prevent disruptions in the supply chain and to keep on schedule to satisfy the time-sensitive demands of our just-in-time manufacturing,” Graves said.
He noted that 80 percent of U.S. trucking firms operate five or fewer trucks, and that most are unable to collate and transmit data electronically to government agencies.