Warning issued on air cargo security screening

Significant further testing must be conducted into the provision of advance data for air cargo and mail parcels security screening. Furthermore, common global standards and procedures must be developed to avoid potentially serious disruption to the flow of world trade, according to The International Air Cargo Association (Tiaca). In his address to the World Customs Organisation’s (WCO) Annual Technical Experts Group on Air Cargo Security Conference in Brussels, Tiaca secretary general Doug Brittin cautioned customs regulators against taking unilateral action to require submission of certain customs information for all air cargo shipments, in advance of aircraft departure. He told delegates ‘we recommend that all regulatory parties coordinate this process through the WCO and that they consult more closely with industry before they move forward on establishing regulations’. A similar process should be followed to establish common procedures for member states’ security regulators to ensure common cargo screening methods are in place after the analysis process is completed, he said. While country-specific advance data programmes have been tested by customs regulators – including ACAS in the US, PRECISE in Europe and PACT in Canada – and some results shared through the WCO and other venues, gaps in ‘global standards’ remain. Brittin said the air cargo industry fully supported the concept of advance data risk analysis, stating that many positive lessons had been learned in relation to the creation of data sets, data transmission, data analysis and the message ‘return’ process. However, he highlighted a series of challenges that must still be overcome. These, he said, included the lack of compatibility between many carrier and forwarder IT systems, inaccurate or incomplete information, wide variations in the timing of data availability, and limited testing of forwarder capabilities, especially outside of the US.