The US is to send customs and security officials to Taiwan's largest harbor as part of Washington's global anti-terrorism efforts, with Kaohsiung being one of the 20 harbors worldwide staffed with US anti-terrorism officials.
Tom Ridge, secretary of US Department of Homeland Security, unveiled last Thursday a new port safety plan to protect the US from possible dangers arriving on the more than 8,000 ships that enter the country from all over the world each year.
Under the port safety plan, the US Department of Homeland Security plans to post customs and border security officers at major seaports overseas, hopefully beginning around the end of this year, to help inspect containers and screen high-risk ships before they ever reach US shores, Ridge said.
Taipei has been cooperating with Washington in battling terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
Among cooperative measures already in place is a "container information checking system," under which all US-bound containers are scrutinized by X-ray.
According to Ministry of Finance officials, the nation's Directorate-General of Customs entered a cooperation agreement with the US soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks to jointly inspect and screen containers departing Taiwan for the US.
The US Customs Service has also dispatched officials to Taiwan to facilitate the container checking efforts, ministry officials said.
Taiwan, however, is now the only port country that has not signed the US's Container Security Initiative (CSI), which is devised to enable US-bound container screening in foreign ports.
According to officials from the Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau, the US Customs Service is hoping that Taiwan will sign the CSI agreement as soon as possible.
Failure to do so could jeopardize Taiwan containers' rights to be processed speedily at US ports, the US Customs Service sources have warned.
Unconfirmed sources said yesterday that due to Beijing's obstruction and the outbreaks of SARS, Taiwan has yet to sign the CSI, which was announced by the US Customs Service Feb. 22, 2002 to strengthen port and maritime security without interrupting trade flow.
Both Taiwan's foreign ministry spokesman Richard Shih (石瑞琦) and the US defacto embassy in Taiwan, the American Institute in Taiwan, were tight-lipped on the report.
Taipei-Washington ties have strengthened under the Bush administration, despite the lack of diplomatic links as Washington continues to recognise Beijing's ultimate authority.
Kaohsiung is the world's fifth largest port.
Out of 8.4 million containers handled there last year, some 600,000 were shipped to the US, including some trans-shipped to other countries, according to Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau officials.
So far, US Customs Service officials are already posted in eight of the top 20 ports around the world -- Hong Kong, Singapore, Rotterdam, Bremen, Hamburg, Antwerp, Nagoya and Le Havre.
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