The US Department of Homeland Security could be two years away from achieving its objective of 100 percent screening for airfreight imports arriving on passenger flights.
Gale Rossides, acting director of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), told the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee it was feasible to screen all domestic cargo by the August 3 deadline. But she estimated that 65 percent was probably the best the TSA could do by that date for international cargo.
Speaking separately at an airfreight security conference in Frankfurt organized by Lufthansa Cargo, Warren Miller, who heads the air cargo international programs branch at the TSA, said the agency had already advised the US Congress on two occasions that the deadline could not be met.
The two-year figure, however, is new. The US imports 1.5 million tonnes of airfreight a year from 97 countries, but Rossides said the biggest challenge is getting cooperation from governments of the 20 countries responsible for almost 85 percent of the shipments.
It is clear that the sudden death in December of Ed Kelly, who had been leading the development of cargo security programs at the TSA for three years, has disrupted efforts to implement the 9/11 Act in a way the industry can work with.
Miller said: “There is no single answer. We must recognize there are many ways that companies move cargo. If we all acted the same way, that would be too predictable. But we must increase security without impeding the free flow of commerce.”
The TSA had learned from its work on securing intra-US airfreight that the focus should be on the supply chain, not solely on screening, Miller said. A long-term, layered approach based on risk targeting was required, but this concept had not yet reached pilot stage.
Although bellyhold cargo has proved challenging, Miller believed imports by freighter aircraft would be easier to deal with. “There will be more precedent for risk management with all-cargo,” he said.