With security in mind, Customs says cargo can wait. If you have to have something shipped from abroad overnight, a counter-terrorism rule that the U.S. Customs Service is considering may delay your delivery. Concerned about the security risks of allowing all kinds of cargo to arrive in the United States without knowing what it is, Customs wants air, rail and trucking companies to disclose the nature of the shipment as many as 12 hours before the goods are loaded. That would give authorities time to check on any suspicious shippers and order that the package not be allowed on board. Shippers are worried that they would have to install or upgrade computer systems, that just-in-time and overnight shipments would be disrupted and that goods might bepilfered because their shipping information would become too widely known. Seagoing vessels already are successfully complying with a new 24-hour rule and the 6 million containers that come into U.S. ports annually should not be slowed by the new system.

March 4th, 2003 8:14 am Filed under: Uncategorized by Howard Skolnik