Speaking at a breakfast meeting hosted by the Dominican Shippers’ Association on Monday 4 February, Daniel Foote, Minister Counselor to the United States Embassy, said that the Dominican Republic needs to boost security at its ports, provide more training for security staff, and increased financial resources to fight corruption there.
He said that these were the main threats to port security and the main challenges facing the country.
He said that although drug trafficking by air had been eliminated, it had increased via the ports, and that the drug traffickers were using them not just for drugs but also arms, people, counterfeit money and other types of contraband.
He suggested that cooperation between US and Dominican agencies would help to identify and dismantle these operations and that they had spoken to the Dominican government about the US’s wish to increase the number of canine units at the ports that could be trained to detect many items and would be another tool to strengthen port security. During his talk, Foote highlighted the way in which trade between both countries had been increasing over the past decade. He said that from 2011 to 2012 alone, US exports had increased by 12%. He added that that trade with the DR was worth more than US$11 billion, of which 90% is transported by sea.
During the event, Teddy Heinsen, president of the National Association of Shippers criticized the ICCSI deal signed during the government of President Hipolito Mejia. He said that monitoring of containers should be carried out within the framework of international agreements and guidelines of Business Alliance for Secure Commerce (BASC) and Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT).
www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2013/2/5/264790/Consejero-embajada-EEUU-pide-reforzar-la-seguridad-en-puertos-por-aumento
www.hoy.com.do/economia/2013/2/5/465837/Ministroembajadadestaca-aumento-en-el-comercio-entre-EEUU-y-RD
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/02/bob-menendez-deep-ties-to-aide-surface-amid-overseas-port-deal-fbi-scrutiny.html