Taiwanese shippers are expected to see higher operational costs, longer working hours and more trade disputes after the US Customs Service imposes new security checks on America-bound cargo starting Dec. 2.
The new measure requires Taiwanese shippers to provide detailed written documentation of container contents 24 hours prior to export loading at Taiwan ports.
The "container security initiative," or CSI, first announced by the US customs in January, aims to prevent terrorist attacks by screening high-risk sea containers in foreign seaports before they are shipped to the US.
The US receives about 50 percent of its imports by sea, the service said. Taiwan is among the top 20 trade partners of the US, and is required to provide the manifest in advance.
"The manifest information should be listed in detail, including the names of shippers, recipients and the exact quantity and types of goods, or the container will be rejected," Chen Chiu-hsiung (
According to statistics from the Taipei Shipping Agencies Association (台北市船務代理公會), a total of 48 million cargo containers move through the world's top seaports annually and 46 percent of them, shipped to the US, will be affected under the new inspection measure.
Rita Hsueh (
"In doing so, both manufacturers and forwarders will face a surge in manpower costs because they have to hire more people or pay overtime to get the job done," she said, adding that the additional costs are hard to estimate.
Apart from cost concerns, the Chen also pointed out that trade disputes may surface because of miscommunication between shippers and customs authorities.
"If the cargo is rejected because of the wrong information, it will be hard to define who is responsible for the delay of goods," he said.
Shipping companies will be penalized US$5,000 for each shipment rejection, and the fine will double the second time, the service said.
"So who is going to pay the fine? Manufacturers, forwarders or shippers?" Chen asked.
Taiwanese shipping giant Evergreen Marine Corp (
Officials from Yangming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) said that the US is expected to release detailed documentation requirements on Friday, and the company will later evaluate whether to hire more manpower to handle the added workload.
Hsueh said the procedure was meaningless.
"US customs still has to wait for the arrival of containers before they can do an actual check, so what is the point of checking documentation in advance?"
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