ACW - Air Cargo Week
06/11/2012
Major Step Forward for EU-US Security
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The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the European Commission (EC) have agreed to recognise each other's air cargo security regime in a decision that went into effect on 1 June.
Air cargo shipments leaving the EU no longer have to be re-screened on arrival in the US, and vice versa.
Siim Kallas, vice president of the EC responsible for transport, noted: "We are getting rid of duplication of security controls, while preserving high levels of security. This is a big step forward and it will have a major business impact.
"Air freight is by definition naturally urgent. Cutting out the duplication of security procedures will mean huge savings for cargo operators in terms of time and money," Kallas pointed out.
Air cargo traffic volumes between Europe and the US now amount to over a million tonnes annually each way, according to the EC, with the goods transported by air from the EU to the US alone being worth more than 107 billion euros (US$133.7 billion) in 2011 - or 27 percent of the value of all goods exported by air from the Union. The EU and US are both each other's most important destination for air freight.
The EU believes that the costs of security measures taken by a carrier might be equivalent to up to 4 percent of turnover, while the additional cost of duplicated transatlantic measures might account for 20 percent of security expenditure.
With mutual recognition of each other's security controls in place, the EU believes that tens of millions of euros will be saved in its member countries without any negative impact on air freight security.
The EC and the US have also agreed to exchange information on "the evolution and implementation of each other's security regimes", including participation in inspections, in order to ensure proper compliance by all cargo carriers flying between the two areas.
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