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C-TPAT and Cargo Security: Sea Change

In an effort to prevent terrorists from turning container and cargo ships into weapons, Customs is counting on big business to goad partners into improving security through initiatives like C-TPAT.

What remains to be seen is whether the guidelines Customs is checking against will be strict enough to make a difference. In discussing the process of joining C-TPAT, people talk about the paperwork involvednot the security improvement they've made. And every care has been taken to assure companies that the process won't slow them down, which seems to hold true right through to the end. DaimlerChrysler's Bill Cook, senior manager of corporate customs, international supply and customs supply, brushes off the validation process. "It was a couple of days' worth of visits," he says. "We took them to some local facilities that could well display how our supply chain works."

"Nobody has complained that it was difficult," says Pinkerton's Wilkins, who has worked with about a dozen of the companies that have been validated. "Those that have been through the validation process have found that Customs was fair and reasonable, and they sort of described it as painless. [Customs is] in and out in 10 days or less."

But underlying such alleged painlessness is a question of whether Customs is going too far to keep the industry happy, at security's expense. "I don't want to be quoted as saying Customs should do a better job, but in some cases [the companies] wanted more suggestions than they got," Wilkins says. "But Customs isn't a consultant."

In fact, that's the whole problem with the concept of public and private partnerships that the Department of Homeland Security has been counting on as a way to improve the nation's security: Guidelines have to be lenient enough that companies will volunteer, but strict enough to make a difference. "It's a balance between the security that's involved and business requirements, so that you don't introduce initiatives that disrupt the economy," DaimlerChrysler's Cook says.

The lip service might be enough at some companies. "From time to time you'll find [security] standards slipping, and when you go back to the business units, they say, Gee whiz, we'd like to do that but we're in cost-cutting mode," Kimberly-Clark's Arnt says. "The thing I feel best about is that now we have a tool to say, 'This is something we have to do to make sure that we remain on the fast-track program.' That's an easy argument to sell to management."

The question: If there is some kind of terrorist attack involving cargo security before C-TPAT has the credibility that Customs hopes it will gain, will the entire program be sunk?