Financial Times

US container security rule to prevent terror attacks
New anti-terrorist rules covering imports into the US are meant to prevent terrorists from smuggling in weapons of mass destruction and must be complied with in order to do business with America, the US Customs Service has told Sri Lanka's shipping community.

"I'm telling the business community that this a national security matter for us," said James L. Dozier, US Customs Attache covering the sub-continent and based in New Delhi. "So they must comply. It applies to everyone who ships merchandise to the US."

Dozier, who is in charge of India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan, was in Colombo last week for talks with his Customs counterparts here as well as with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and shippers.

Exporters shipping merchandise to the US now have to comply with the new US Customs Advanced Manifest Rule under which they must send manifest information to the US Customs 24 hours before containers are loaded on to vessels at foreign ports.

This is part of the US Container Security Initiative (CSI) that came into effect after the terrorist attacks on the US in September 11, 2001. Under this, US Customs agents deployed in foreign ports handling large volumes of cargo bound for the US screen containers before they are loaded onto vessels.

Dozier said in an interview that the new measures were introduced because some 200 million containers enter the US each year and this was considered very vulnerable.

"Through intelligence we heard that terrorists who dislike us might put weapons of mass destruction in a container, ship it into the country and set it off," he said.
"The CSI is in the national security interests of the US . . . to address the threat," he said.

"Exporters must also be very specific in their cargo specifications. Vague descriptions such as 'freight, all kinds' will not be accepted anymore," Dozier said. "But everything else remains the same in exporting to the US."

He added: "We don't want our importers or the country to be hurt economically because of this." Those who do not comply with the new rules face the risk of their boxes being left behind or having to pay penalties.

Dozier said exporters need not worry about being penalised unfairly or their boxes being left behind under the new security procedures because "if we allow a container on board the vessel, under the new security procedure, it means that once it enters the US it will be released faster."

The US Customs recognises that everything is not perfect, he added. "We look at it from a good faith perspective," Dozier said. "We will penalise exporters only if there are continued discrepancies over a period of time. But those who have a good track record and make honest mistakes should have no fear of being penalised."

He said the US Customs accepts that it takes time for people to adjust to the new regime. “People are aware of the requirement. It seems they are making the adjustments required. “We now scrutinise who the exporter is, what merchandise is being shipped, whether we need more information, or if there is intelligence of a threat we may ask them not to load the container,” Dozier said.

Merc Bank in talks with investors on cash injection
Merc Bank is negotiating with a few investors to inject fresh capital into the bank, its managing director Nihal Jayawardena said. "The negotiations would be finalised very soon. We are seeking fresh capital in order to assist us in our expansion project and to recover from the losses made the previous year," he said.

"When the bank commenced operations in May 2000, the banking licence given by the Central Bank did not permit us to deal in foreign currency. That limited us operating as a fully fledged bank. Customers, for whom we handle deposits and do lending, wanted to obtain the services of foreign banking activity but we were unable to offer it. This limitation contributed a great deal for the losses we made last year."

Asked whether the bank's massive expenditure on information technology was one of the reason that contributed to the loss, Jayawardena said, "If we were allowed to operate as a fully fledged bank from inception the IT infrastructure could have been utilised and our customers could have benefited from it." Asked about allegations regarding delays in interest payments, Jayawardena said: "there was no delay in paying interest to any depositor." (DM)

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