Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, speaking at the 8th Annual US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trade Symposium last Thursday, underscored the need for cooperation in standing up layers of defenses to fight terrorism in the United States and abroad.

In addition, the SAFE Port Act of 2006 established the Secure Freight Initiative, where three foreign ports have so far cooperated with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to scan almost 100 percent of US-bound containers leaving those ports, Chertoff noted.

"What we have done is we've opened up secure freight scanning facilities in Pakistan, Honduras and the United Kingdom, and we have four more locations we're going to do that in the next few months, including Hong Kong. We're looking forward to reporting to Congress next April on the challenges and the opportunities, the benefits and the burdens of doing this," Chertoff stated.

Chertoff stressed that a new DHS rule to be proposed by year's end would compel international cooperation with providing additional data on entry submissions for shipments entering the United States. That data should help DHS manage risk and identify shipments that could contain terrorist materiel.

DHS also intends to analyze customer data for shipments to target those containers that pose a higher risk of terrorism than others.

"In the coming weeks, CBP is going to issue a small-scale solicitation for proposals to test and validate this concept," Chertoff announced. "Participation at this point is going to be voluntary. We welcome your efforts to help us develop a step-by-step approach to see whether this in fact is going to be as promising as we think it is going to be."