The US government issued long-overdue final rules on air cargo security that do not require widespread electronic screening of cargo.
The move came after shipping companies and others complained any widespread inspections would be too time-consuming and reduce cargo shipping to a crawl.
Instead, the rules focus on extending secure areas at airports and requiring more background checks of workers.
New rules call for the consolidation of about 4,000 known shipper lists into one central database, managed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
A public-private working group of government officials, representatives from the airlines and other spend six months in 2003 drafting recommendations. TSA then spent another year studying the recommendations which also underwent a lengthy review process.
“Working with the industry, we have set a solid foundation for a major segment of the transportation network,” said TSA Assistant Secretary Kip Hawley.
Others were not so sure.
One critic, Rep. Ed Markey of Ohio, said the new regulations fail to close a “glaring aviation security loophole.”
Report by David Wilkening
