EU ambassador questions 100% scanning law

The European Union's Ambassador to the United States, John Bruton, Thursday warned that the recently passed legislation calling for 100 percent scanning of inbound U.S. container by July 2012 will result in less trade between the two continents.

During a visit to Baltimore on Wednesday, Bruton claimed the law is unfair as its does not require containers on ships leaving the United States to be inspected in the same way.

This is bound to put an unfair burden on European companies and taxpayers who will have to foot the bill for expensive imaging equipment, additional personnel and even rebuilding of ports, he said in a statement. Large reconstruction and land acquisition will have to take place at almost all ports to accommodate containers waiting to be scanned. American consumers will also be affected as prices on imports will rise.

The European Commission will in the next few weeks issue its estimates on the U.S. legislation impact on European Union ports. Bruton already anticipates smaller or older ports will not be able to afford to continue shipping to the United States.

Clearly, scanning every single container will result in longer shipping times -- a fact that has companies on both sides of the Atlantic worried. Unfortunately, backlogs at ports could create an indirect brake on trade.

The 100 percent scanning measure will certainly impact the Port of Baltimore. More than 2.3 million containers are shipped from the EU to the United States annually and 5.2 million tons of cargo with a value of $16.3 billion was shipped from Europe to the Port of Baltimore in 2006. Higher shipping costs would translate into fewer containers crossing the Atlantic and thus less business for the Port of Baltimore, said Bruton.

He added that while the EU shares the objective of having effective protections it would rather see a risk-based system adopted, where only containers with a genuine doubt about the provenance of the contents would be targeted. That model, Bruton said, would deliver a proper balance between legitimate trade facilitation and customs security. 

Source : American Shipper