SECURITY

IMPORTANT OF SECURITY IN INTERNATIONAL TRADE.

INTRODUCTION

Security has become increasingly important. Even legitimate business people must beware of the regulations. This is because every shipper must comply with the same laws, and one does not want to become accidentally involved in illegal activity. In this week we begin with a discussion of corruption in custom agencies. The next section introduces dangerous goods, which include variety of goods. The next section is on security, which refers to cargo left and lastly is about the smuggling.

CORRUPTION

One of the main concerns with government agencies, and particularly customs, is corruption. Corruption is the misuse of entrusted power for private benefit. While many agencies are highly professional, there are also many where corruption is likely, or even the standard operating procedure. This becomes a major for shippers and society.

It usually involves government because they are the ones with a public duty. Private business many be corrupt in that it is dishonest. However, there has been trend toward privatizing many functions that have traditionally been government jobs. We are concerned particularly with the custom agencies. This is where the public, and particularly the importer, encounters the government, yet is most vulnerable. The government has far more power in this situation than a individual shipper, and thus there is the chance of abuse.

DANGEROUS GOODS

More than three billion tons of hazardous materials are transported by rail, air, vessel or highway, annually in the US, more than 800,000 shipments every day. There is now a large industry of logistics and transport professionals specializing and the regulation that apply. In most industries logisticians do not need to worry about much of the technical aspects of their cargo, but this is not the case with DG.

SECURITY

Security in this case refers to threats of attack to both cargo and the people involved in the logistics process. Issues of security in international business can become quite broad, so discussion will be limited to matter of cargo security and incidental threats to personnel managing the cargo. The importance of security can be seen in the variety of threats that are presented in the supply chain:

• ·         Cargo theft is one cause of loss where a lot can be done to control it, yet it has been called the transportation industry’s ‘dirty little secret’. Two things put cargo at its risk, dwell time and changes in control.

• ·         Dwell time is when the cargo is not physically moving. It is extremely difficult to steal cargo while it is moving. Besides the obvious difficulties of getting into a truck while it is moving.

• ·         Changes in control refers to those points in a shipments where cargo is being passed from one party to another. This may be at a port, where different modes of transport connect. It may also be when drivers are switched.

SMUGGLING

Smuggling is defined as conveying goods or persons, without permission, across the borders of a country or other political entity. This means that only international transfers are smuggling.

·         Trafficking, unlike smuggling, is the buying/selling and transport of something, yet the term has become synonymous with smuggling.