U.S Tightens Rope on Freight Forwarders

The international freight forwarding business is sailing towards choppy times. The boat is being rocked by new security customs clearing strictures in the USA and EU. This became apparent at the headquarter meeting of the International Federation of the Freight Forwarders Association (FIATA) in Zurich recently.

FIATA’s worst fears are ringing true. USA’s latest security initiative, the ‘10 + 2 Security Rule’ which could come into effect within the year demands a list of information to be electronically transmitted from all importers and carriers of goods to the USA. An example: Name and address of the manufacturer, vendor and purchaser or place and address of the loader of the container. In addition to this, the carrier should notify the stowage plan and container status to the US customs and border security authorities 24 hours before the containers are loaded on the ship. The US authorities are demanding a list of data even for boxes that will remain on board a ship that just touches a US port. This is in addition to the intention of the US Congress to scan all containers being shipped to the USA at the port of departure.

“The new ‘10 + 2’ will expose all participants to a string of liabilities which could be as large as the value of an entire consignment,” says Frank Boogaerts, speaker of the Working Committee for Sea Freight in the Multimodal Institute of FIATA. He went on to say that it is rather hazy at present who will be made liable in case of lapse. According to Boogaerts, the US customs authorities have not yet intimated when exactly the rule would come into effect. The implementation of ‘10 + 2’ shows that the authorities are under tremendous political pressure to enforce security measures. Boogaerts thinks the ‘10 + 2’ could come into effect anytime in the second half of this year. Delegates from the USA assume, however, that it will take longer. The US customs has innumerable practical problems to sort out prior to the implementation of this new measure.

It is expected that it will take till 2012 for a 100 per cent scanning of all containers headed for the USA. At present there are tests running in Port Quasim, Puerto Cortes, Southampton, Busan, Salalah, Hong Kong and Singapore. Results are not known till date.

In June 2009, the EU intends to enforce the ‘Entry Summary Declaration’ (ENS). This was disclosed at the meeting of the FIATA Airfreight Institute. The current stand states that the carrier is responsible for filling out a declaration encompassing 29 datafields and forwarding it electronically to the customs authority. This is to be done before the arrival of a carrier at an EU airport or port. Since there is extensive preliminary IT work still to be completed, it is unsure if the deadline can be achieved.