9-11 Three years Later

Expatriates and their employers need to view international expansion and the continued management of offshore enterprise with a new sense of reality of the world today.

The Horror of September 11th, 2001 changed all of our lives.

How has the passage of time over these last three years continued to affect us and how have we and the global workforce adapted to the realities of today?

Much has been done, much is still to be done by governments around the world to improve levels of security. Billions of dollars have been spent in developing new technology and creating new levels of authority with specific responsibility. Thousands of jobs have been created to administer these responsibilities (the Department of Homeland Security now has over 180,000 employees!). New regulations have been introduced with higher standards of security enforcement. There are continual announcements of elevated degrees of alert. Opinions are expressed on radio, TV, and in newspapers, by experts from every walk of life and every shade of political colour on the legitimacy of these actions.

The public are bombarded with information which is often confusing, conflicting, and frequently embellished for journalistic sensationalism, resulting in an underlying sense of paranoia which can so easily feed on itself.

During this time, business has had to adapt to these new circumstances and find ways to continue to trade within the restrictions of what is now the new normality of daily routine. Failure to adapt means lost opportunities.

What has been done over the last three years to reduce the possibility of another attack on the scale of 9/11? The immediate actions were all reactions to the incident and all involved the overhaul of security at airports and the introduction of much higher levels of security inspections for the business and leisure traveling public. For the most part, travelers have accepted this as a totally necessary, although inconvenient, additional element to their routine. They have adapted and make their plans accordingly.

Maritime and overland trade, which affects all exporters and importers around the world, has had to face the very real threat that terrorists might use cargo containers or trailers as a means of moving explosives, weapons of mass destruction, or even terrorists themselves over borders and into ports. This is a very real concern as we know that many illegal immigrants have successfully entered Canada and the U.S. using containers and that smuggling of contraband, especially drugs and weapons in shipments of otherwise innocent cargo, has long been a favourite method of organized crime. In April this year, two suicide terrorists successfully crossed the border into Israel concealed in a secret compartment inside a container. The two detonated their explosives in a Port area, killing ten people.

This incident gave a renewed degree of credibility to the fear that containers could be used for terrorism. As a result of this concern, a number of U.S. initiatives have been developed and embraced by all countries with trading links to the U.S.

C.S.I. – The Container Security Initiative was introduced in January 2002. This places U.S. Customs Officers in foreign ports, to work closely with local Customs Authorities. Working together, potentially high risk cargo is pre-screened at ports of origin in an attempt to identify and turn back any cargo that they are not comfortable with, for further examination before it is ever loaded on board ship. This is known as “pushing out the boundaries”.

The 24-Hour Rule, introduced in December 2002, requires all ships to provide detail of their manifest, identifying the containers and their cargo, to U.S. Customs Authorities, twenty-four hours before departure to any U.S. Port. This includes any cargo destined for Canada via a U.S. Port. Canada will introduce its own 24-Hour Rule in April 2005.

C-TPAT, which is the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, is a joint initiative of U.S. Customs and private industry and was introduced in April 2002. This is currently a co-operative venture with voluntary membership from steamship lines, airlines, port authorities, transportation companies, importers, exporters, freight forwarders, and customs brokers. The emphasis of all participants is on the security of their supply chain, which consists of any other entity involved in any way with the manufacture, handling, transportation, and purchase of their cargo or product. Canada has followed the U.S. by introducing P.I.P. or Partners in Protection, which is identical to C-TPAT.

In December 2003, the Bio-Terrorism Act was introduced by the U.S. This deals with the concern that terrorists could contaminate food products destined for U.S. consumption. The Bio-Terrorism Act requires that all shipments of food products, including alcohol and bottled water are controlled. Any exporter, importer, or handler of food products for U.S. consumption, must register with the FDA and Prior Notice (PN) of the shipment, consisting of very detailed information of the products and their origin, must be lodged with U.S. Customs prior to the arrival of the cargo.

All of these measures have been introduced as a result of 9/11, in the knowledge that future attacks may use methods that are similarly creative and imaginative.

Individual personal freedom of movement has been affected by increased surveillance, new and restricted visa eligibility, profiling and biometric identification, and we have had to accept these changes and move on – or stay at home.

Governments needed to take action. The levels of security in airports, at maritime ports, and throughout the wider supply chain were shockingly inadequate. Security today is at a much higher level.

What else can be done? Amongst all of the new initiatives and legislation, there grows a false sense of security and reliance on Government to provide all of the solutions. That will never happen. No government, however imaginative, can provide that. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, virtually any type of further attack has become conceivable. The subsequent attacks in Bali, Madrid, and elsewhere, confirm that this is NOT just a U.S.-centric problem.

There is still a real need for business and the public in general to shake off any remaining complacency and become more aware of their own personal responsibilities.

There is still a need for much wider participation by Trade in C-TPAT, and in PIP. These bodies are a real opportunity for business to contribute in so many ways to a more secure supply chain. Any improvements of this nature will involve individual employees at all levels and that increase in individual awareness will create a more secure environment for them and their customers.

Expatriates and their employers need to view international expansion and the continued management of their offshore enterprise with a new sense of reality of the world today. A recent editorial in “The Economist” under the title “Doing Business in Dangerous Places” said “Too many companies entering markets in backward countries, even those not at war, greatly underestimate the cost of security”.

There is a need to accept the new post – 9/11 normality, without succumbing to paranoia or fear. We are in a new era, needing acknowledgement of the new risks and the maturity, responsibility, and self-reliance to take an active part in minimizing these risks by being more aware of the world around us and the need to adapt accordingly.

Much wider acknowledgement of the need for a higher level of individual and corporate participation and involvement in developing more effective personal and public security instead of reliance and resignation to further governmental protection by legislation would be a good start.

Colin Gordon
Director of Quality Assurance, TheMIGroup