MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US and Argentina agree to tighten port security

Last Monday, Argentina became the first Latin American country to reach an agreement on the optimization of container security with the United States.

The cooperation protocol to reinforce control in the Buenos Aires port and to expedite trade between the two nations was signed by the head of the Argentine Federal tax bureau (AFIP), Alberto Abad, and US Ambassador Lino Gutierrez at the AFIP headquarters.

In attendance at the ceremony was Economy Minister Roberto Lavagna who explained that the government will continue to advance on "the implementation of strict control norms in money laundering that might have an indirect or direct relationship with terrorism."

To ratify the importance of this pact, the head of International Affairs for the US Homeland Security Department, Ambassador Cresencio Arcos, was in Buenos Aires, and spoke to reporters about the implications of the deal.

Mr. Arcos posed the question, "how can we balance international trade with security?" while at the same time keeping costs from rising for the sector. "The US needs allies such as Argentina," the Texas born official said.

The Buenos Aires port is the twenty-fourth largest source of US imports, and while it does not represent a particular security risk, the ambassador said "it is the fourth largest port in Latin America, with some 56,000 containers exported to the US per year."

Mr. Arcos illustrated that the agreement was part of a larger US strategy to have more strict control over a US$14 trillion open economy.

"We have between 400 and 500 million entries per year, some 7,500 miles of terrestrial borders with Canada and Mexico, and an extensive coastline," added Mr. Arcos who gave specific traffic figures: "115 million vehicles cross the US border every year, as do 90 million railway cars. Between 8 and 9 million containers are estimated to enter the US every year."

The Container Security Initiative (CSI) agreement is based on the exchange of information, screening, technology, and reciprocity. The mutual accords are carried out within a broader framework called the Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT), championed by the US.

Initially there will be two or three US customs officers operating in the port of Buenos Aires alongside Argentine customs officials, although the idea is to expand the deal to two other ports. The US will loan the first mobile scanner to the port of Buenos Aires, and then the port will hold a bidding to select a private company that will buy nine mobile scanners, at an estimated cost of nearly US$5 million each.

In a second phase, three fixed scanners will be purchased for the ports of Buenos Aires, Uspallata (Córdoba), and Paso de los Libres (Corrientes). Thirty-six other ports worldwide have signed on to the container security programme with the United States. The accord follows a string of drug trafficking scandals in Argentina that exposed gaping security holes in the customs system, particularly at the airport.