Shippers have come out against US proposals for 100% of air cargo to be screened before loading onto freighters.Andrew Traill, Managing Partner of online forum Shippers’ Voice, and Policy Director at the European Shippers’ Council, said the proposal would harm international trade and would be ineffective. Traill said: “Killing the air freight industry with draconian security procedures would be giving the terrorists a result they would long to see.

“The most effective way to detect a threat and deter anyone intending to use air freight to carry out an attack is through intelligence.
“There are regulations now in the US and Europe that require information about the freight, its origins and destination, the people handling it and its route to be sent in advance of its arrival.

“This means, in practice, that most air cargo carriers will not want to take_off before being sure that the freight they carry has been cleared by the security authorities.”

He said enabling people in the supply chain to perform checks and maintain security through the transport chain was not a weakness of security but a strength.

He added: “Provided the system is properly policed, this multi_tiered approach to security in air freight is far more effective than scanning everything – especially when we know the technology is not perfect – and watching the air freight industry collapse under the weight of delays and excessive costs.”

Traill said many government_led programmes were still being implemented in Europe and elsewhere. But he added that the industry and the authorities were getting their act together, and increasing the quantity, standard and variety of security procedures being implemented.

“Now is not the time to undermine these initiatives in any knee_jerk reaction to the latest threat,” he said.Traill’s warning comes after Republican Edward Markey said he would table legislation that will require 100% screening of all air freight before it is loaded on freighters that will travel in the US.

This follows the discovery of two bombs on cargo planes last week.Freight forwarders have also warned governments against knee_jerk reactions to the discovery of the bombs.

Asia’s airlines have also called on governments not to rush into “inappropriate” security measures.
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) has called on regulators to remain calm and work with the industry “to apply the best operational measures”.

AAPA Director General, Andrew Herdman said: “We long ago learned that it is human nature that each new security incident prompts a desire to introduce yet more security measures, but it takes a certain political maturity to remain calm, and not fall into the trap of knee_jerk reactions by the imposition of new security measures of unproven effectiveness.”

He said good security was about comprehensive threat assessment and balanced risk management, not the elimination of every conceivable risk. “Terrorists measure their success by how much we over_react to their provocations,” he added.