U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) worked closely with Dubai Ports of the UAE to target high-risk cargo containers bound for the U.S. The port’s Customs officials are responsible for screening containers identified jointly with DBP officers as posing potential terrorist risks. The UAE was the first Middle Eastern country to join CSI, which it did on December 12, 2004.
As CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner notes, with an average of 25,000 containers reaching U.S. ports each day, the CSI program, under the aegis of CBP, provides for a mutual risk assessment of every ocean-going container headed for the U.S. before it is loaded on a vessel in a foreign port and before that vessel is bound for U.S. seaports.
Launched in January 2002, CSI now boasts 35 ports as member with an additional 21 port administrations in various stages of implementation committed to joining the program. The ports are in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and now the Middle East.
