Companies, ports bear costs of heightened security

As the U.S. Customs Service rolls out heightened security measures for global trade, companies that ship goods in and out of Port Everglades and the Port of Miami-Dade are realizing the onus for homeland security — and the costs — is on them. New rules that went into effect earlier this month require companies to let Customs know, in some detail, the cargo shipped in containers. Carriers are required to provide that information 24 hours before vessels load the containers and set sail for American shores. Later this year, similar requirements will be placed on inbound truck and air cargo — everything from flowers arriving in the bellies of passenger aircraft to FedEx packages bound for Brickell Avenue banks to the billions of dollars in goods that cross the Canadian and Mexican borders. Along with the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and the stationing of Customs inspectors in busy foreign ports, the sweeping new plan is to create rings of security checks so that border patrols, the Coast Guard and Customs inspectors are just the last — and not the only — line of defense. Full Story