William Malamud, executive vice-president of the American
\nChamber of Commerce, criticized the policy of X-raying export containers by a
\nnew company, as approved by Congress. "With this X-ray machine not tied in to
\nany system there will be no benefits, only costs," he said. As reported in Hoy
\nnewspaper, shipper Gustavo Tavares and Jose Mella, speaking for the Association
\nof Shippers, said that the ICSSI company that will verify the containers would
\nrequire the shipping companies to provide information that they consider to be
\nconfidential between shippers and their clients. He said that the shipping
\nagents are only required to give this information to the government (Ports
\nAuthority or Customs Department) and not to any private entity. Mella explained
\nthat in providing this information to a third party, the shipper is liable for
\ncontainers that are detoured or in cases where the cargo is stolen. "Until now,
\neven if we have been requested to provide the information, we have not been
\nauthorized to do so by the international shipping lines," stated Mella.
\nFurthermore, while all containers would be obliged to pay the new charge that
\nranges from US$25 to US$85, the company will only have capacity to actually
\ninspect 10% of the shipments. Mella felt that the BAS program of the United
\nStates government is a much better alternative and said the authorization of the
\ncontroversial company is a rule change that would considerably increase the
\noperation costs at the Caucedo Multimodal Port, expected to enter into operation
\nat the end of this year. "This is a very negative signal for foreign investment
\nin the country," he said. The X-ray operation system has been rejected by all
\nbusiness sectors in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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, … <\/p>\n