In a joint statement March 8, 2004, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Robert C. Bonner and Datuk Abdul Halil Bin Abdul Mutalib, director general of customers for the government of Malaysia, announced the port of Klang, Malaysia has implemented the U.S. Container Security Initiative (CSI).
The two government agencies had signed a declaration of principles to cooperate in the CSI on January 20, 2003.
"The primary purpose of CSI is to protect the global trading system and the trade lanes between CSI ports and the U.S.," said Commissioner Bonner. As part of the CSI initiative, CBP has deployed a team of customs officers to the port of Klang to work with their Malaysian counterparts to target cargo containers destined for the United States, said CBP. Officials of the Malaysian government are responsible for examining any container identified jointly with CBP as a potential terrorist risk.
The Port of Klang is the 18th CSI port to become operational since the CSI was proposed in January 2002. Klang is located on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, about 40 km from the capital city of Kuala Lampur. In 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, the port's container volume totaled 4,533,212 TEUs (3,637,210 loaded and 896,002 empty).
Other CSI ports include Antwerp, Belgium; Bremerhaven, Germany; Busan, South Korea; Durban, South Africa; Felixtowe, UK; Genoa, Italy; Goteborg, Sweden; Halifax, NS; Hamburg, Germany; Hong Kong; La Spezia, Italy; LeHavre, France; Montreal, QE; Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Singapore; Vancouver, BC; and Yokohama, Japan.
