The terrorists' attacks of September 11, 2001 fundamentally changed the national security priorities of governments and forced a reappraisal of the approaches their customs and border agencies employ to control national boundaries. These changes presented all governments with a challenge that is difficult and multi-faceted – securing their borders against terrorist attacks in the commercial, maritime, and aviation environments, while maintaining the traditional function of facilitating legitimate trade and travel. In addition, protecting ports, harbors, terminals, and ships against cargo theft, smuggling, drugs, weapons, and other crime continues to pose an ongoing challenge for federal, state and local governments and industry.

In this post 9/11 environment, there are new challenges as well. These include the threat that terrorists might target critical infrastructure by destroying bridges, power plants and other facilities.

Those of us in the trade and maritime logistics industries understand that protecting and securing the supply chain, which delivers goods to U.S. consumers, is and will continue to be one of our most important national security priorities. New concerns about the threat of cargo entering the country containing nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons of mass destruction and the recognition that the vast majority of goods traversing the globe do so through maritime trade channels further reinforces the importance of this issue.