DHS lays groundwork for customs checkpoints in Canada
Formal negotiations between the Department of Homeland Security and Canadian officials to set the parameters for a preclearance system pilot program that would relocate U.S. primary and secondary inspection stations to the Canadian side of the border are expected to begin in May, said Elaine Dezenski, acting assistant secretary for border and transportation security policy.
As previously announced, the U.S. facility would be located on the Canadian side of the Peace Bridge that connects Fort Erie and Buffalo, N.Y. Canada will also station inspectors on U.S. soil under the reciprocal agreement, but a location has yet to be determined, Dezenski said. DHS has stated that the Thousand Islands Bridge or the Queenston-Lewiston crossing are among those under consideration for the Canadian facility.
Canada and the United States are working closely to develop a common approach to security on the northern border. In the past, DHS officials have said a preclearance system could be an interim step towards integrated border inspection areas in which customs authorities conduct joint screening and clearance operations for passengers, vehicles and cargo.
Many details of the preclearance concept remain to be resolved, including jurisdictional issues governing the authority of inspectors on foreign soil and dealing with labor unions that represent government inspectors.
“We won’t be breaking ground for awhile, but we need to move forward,” Dezenski said.
In a luncheon address to the National Industrial Transportation League’s Spring Policy Forum in Arlington, Va., Dezenski also spoke about the larger DHS strategy and programs designed to prevent terrorists from using the international supply chain to deliver a mass destruction weapon.
She said the national cargo security strategy that lays out the department’s objectives for reducing the terrorist threat through risk management, private sector standards and best practices and international cooperation on common inspection processes is being held up as part of a broader department review being conducted by new DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to ensure consistency between of all programs, including those involving supply chain security.
The strategy was first presented in draft form to trade industry officials in mid-December for their feedback. Earlier this year Dezenski said the department planned to issue its strategy by early March.
Last week DHS announced $17 million in grants to fund the third phase of Operation Safe Commerce, a public-private partnership in which in which transportation providers, shippers, ports and technology companies collaborate to test container tracking and security systems under real-world shipping conditions to see if they are reliable enough to deploy industry wide. Dezenski said the next round of work would focus on earlier problems, such as integrating systems, establishing an information technology backbone for capturing and transmitting container status information and developing devices that are interchangeable between transport modes.
The testing and review of results will be much faster than the earlier rounds when compiling reports of lessons learned took upwards of 18 months, she said.
DHS continues to work on developing standards for a sophisticated security device with sensors that can detect breaches through any part of the container as well as the presence of radiation, chemicals and other threats. Dezenski reiterated the department’s position that such technology is still far from becoming reality. It will take at least two years to have the IT backbone in place to support the devices, aside from any reliability issues associated with the device itself.
That message was received with “quite a bit of consternation” on Capitol Hill when DHS officials briefed the House Appropriations Committee during a hearing last week, she said. DHS is trying to convince lawmakers that it is not feasible to write legislation mandating the use of container security devices and deploy them all over the world by next year.
“We’re not moving ahead from a departmental standard from requiring any technology that we don’t feel is ready for deployment,” she said.
Dezenski said the Science and Technology directorate is working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to develop an electronic tamper-alert device affixed to the container door as a short-term solution that “might be used on a voluntary basis,” an apparent reference to CBP’s “green lane” concept for trusted importers participating in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism who use the device to provide inspectors added assurance that their containers are secure.
The cooperation between the agencies on the matter would be a departure from recent practice of working at cross-purposes on the subject, according to sources familiar with the program (see April issue, American Shipper).
Meanwhile, the Border and Transportation Security directorate has completed its draft rulemaking requiring the use of high-security seals on all inbound containers. The proposed rule is being reviewed by Secretary Chertoff’s office before being sent to the Office of Management and Budget, which has up to 90 days for its own review, Dezenski said after her speech.
DHS is developing contingency plans designed to keep commerce flowing and ports open in the event of a terrorist attack in a port, “but it’s probably wishful thinking that we’d keep all trade lanes open,” Dezenski said.