Everyone in the electronics industry should pay attention to the homeland security bill wending its way through Congress. It is likely to have an impact on industry attempts to tighten supply chain delivery schedules.

Earlier this year, the House, on a bipartisan vote, passed Bill HR1, “Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007.” The bill awaits Senate action.

Among its provisions, the bill would require that all ocean cargo containers headed to the United States be scanned for nuclear bomb components. At present, a small portion of cargo containers entering U.S. ports are inspected.

If the legislation is passed in its strongest form, with required dates for implementation and penalties for non-compliant trading partners, we could be faced with massive disruptions in global trade.

The good news: The bill gives the Department of Homeland Security up to six years to find, perfect and implement the technology.

There are two screening technologies, neither perfected yet, to be implemented. The first is a radiation scan that detects potentially dangerous cargoes. The second is imaging of the containers’ contents, showing the density (and likely the details) of the load inside.

Chris Koch, CEO of the World Shipping Council, an industry group, tells me his biggest concern is that the current language in the bill is too vague and does not contain enough practical content to guide the ultimate implementation of the required technologies.

WSC is advocating continued development of standards and procedures before any hard and fast decisions are made on implementation deadlines.

We should make our ports more secure, including 100 percent inspection, if it can be done without causing cargo gridlock. But Congress must be careful not to mandate solutions that don’t yet exist.

TFI members need to take an active interest in this issue, because it could significantly slow down our global supply chains. We urge you to keep a close eye on it and talk with your company’s government relations department about these concerns.

We thank TFI member Henri Duhot of DHL for bringing this issue to our attention during our Quarterly Forum in March.

And we’d also like to know what you think about the bill. Please post a comment below.

Posted by Jon Gilbert, May 11th, 2007

Filed to Logistics, Supply chain management

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