Officials discuss inspecting cargo before it arrives

WASHINGTON — One big problem with finding 22 Chinese stowaways in a cargo container in Seattle is that they already made it into the United States, Port of Seattle CEO Mic Dinsmore told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday.

On the same day the stowaways were discovered, senators and port officials discussed ways to move port security beyond U.S. shores and detect dangers in cargo before they arrive.

Lawmakers call the new emphasis "pushing the borders out."

"That incident is a stark reminder that we are not doing enough to keep our cargo-container system secure," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "This appears to have been a case of human smuggling, but that cargo container could have been filled with anything from a dirty bomb to a cell of terrorists."

Murray is a co-sponsor of the GreenLane Maritime Security Act, which would offer incentives to companies complying with stricter security standards. The bill was discussed at Wednesday's hearing.

Lists of contents

Currently, itemized lists of a cargo ship's contents — called manifests and bills of lading — must be filed with the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs before the ship arrives in an American port.

Customs officers review the information to choose containers for physical inspection.

But Customs officers can't inspect all the millions of containers entering American ports each year. Doing so would slow commerce to a crippling crawl, numerous experts said in Senate hearings this week.

Customs officials physically examined less than 4 percent of the 633,000 containers that entered the Port of Seattle last year. They inspected just over 2 percent of the 534,000 containers entering the Port of Tacoma, according to Customs figures.

Under the GreenLane measure, exporters would share more information about their U.S.-bound cargo and allow the containers to be searched before being loaded on a ship. The cargo also would be tracked from the foreign factory to the U.S. port.

In return, the cargo would be subject to fewer searches and released more quickly upon entering the U.S.

The GreenLane bill also would set higher security standards for all cargo, offer $400 million in port security grants, establish deadlines for new security measures and create plans to reopen ports closed by an emergency.

Murray's bill is one of several in Congress aimed at improving port security. A similar bill, the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act, is working its way through the House.

One of its sponsors, Rep. Daniel Lungren, R-Calif., said he expects a vote in May.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Homeland Security Committee, said she hopes to pass the GreenLane Act out of her committee in a few weeks.

Collins, who also is a co-sponsor of the act, praised private business for its cooperation on port security.

Scanning containers

Gary Gilbert, a Hutchison Ports World vice president, told senators about a new system created by his company that scans containers without slowing their passage through the terminal. Hutchison is the largest port terminal operator in the world.

Containers entering Hutchison's Hong Kong terminal pass through radiation and imaging scans, Gilbert said. Photographs are taken of the container number and the license plate of the truck delivering the container to the port. The information is filed electronically and could be added to manifest documents that customs officers already review.

Hutchison scanned 1.5 million containers in Hong Kong last year, Gilbert said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff visited the Hong Kong port to view the system last weekend, Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson told the Senate committee. Jackson said he's optimistic the new system could enhance the ability to inspect more containers worldwide.

Dinsmore noted that while the new scanning system is a big step forward, it still only exists at one terminal in one port.

"Sooner or later we need to move from pilot programs to implementation," he said.

The Associated Press contributed

to this report.