TSA seeks international screening methods to 'fast-track' deadline

THE big challenge facing the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in meeting its deadline to screen all in-bound international cargo on passenger planes is standardising screening methods worldwide.


It failed to meet August 2010 deadline and it has now been extended to 2013, but is still dependent on other countries' cargo screening meeting TSA standards, said Airforwarders' Association executive director Brandon Fried.


If they don't there is a risk of re-screening on entry to the US, he said, ahead of a meeting of its 300 members who together with others represent the US$17 billion annual air cargo business.


"There's no magic bullet here," Mr Fried, according to the Washington-based National Journal, adding that differing screening methods does not necessarily mean inefficiency.


"But if the TSA is told by another country, 'We're screening, but we can't show you how were doing it', then I don't think that's workable," said Mr Fried.


The Yemeni airmail bomb plot targeting the US, but, stopped in the UK and Dubai, has brought forward the TSA timeline for meeting 100 per cent screening, with a 45-day period for industry feedback.


Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has discussed this with peers in Ireland, Afghanistan, Qatar and Belgium, and visited Israeli's Ben Gurion airport to view its risk-based passenger screening methods.


"International cooperation is critical to the security of people everywhere," she said at a meeting in Brussels which led her to bring forward cargo screening on passenger planes.


International take-up of cargo security partners has been "considerable", said Jim Fotenos, TSA spokesman, numbering 190 countries last October, and with many keen to discuss standard security measures with the US.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)