William Malamud, executive vice-president of the American
Chamber of Commerce, criticized the policy of X-raying export containers by a
new company, as approved by Congress. "With this X-ray machine not tied in to
any system there will be no benefits, only costs," he said. As reported in Hoy
newspaper, shipper Gustavo Tavares and Jose Mella, speaking for the Association
of Shippers, said that the ICSSI company that will verify the containers would
require the shipping companies to provide information that they consider to be
confidential between shippers and their clients. He said that the shipping
agents are only required to give this information to the government (Ports
Authority or Customs Department) and not to any private entity. Mella explained
that in providing this information to a third party, the shipper is liable for
containers that are detoured or in cases where the cargo is stolen. "Until now,
even if we have been requested to provide the information, we have not been
authorized to do so by the international shipping lines," stated Mella.
Furthermore, while all containers would be obliged to pay the new charge that
ranges from US$25 to US$85, the company will only have capacity to actually
inspect 10% of the shipments. Mella felt that the BAS program of the United
States government is a much better alternative and said the authorization of the
controversial company is a rule change that would considerably increase the
operation costs at the Caucedo Multimodal Port, expected to enter into operation
at the end of this year. "This is a very negative signal for foreign investment
in the country," he said. The X-ray operation system has been rejected by all
business sectors in the Dominican Republic.