The war with Iraq and raising of the U.S. terror alert status to orange has not impacted the movement of ocean container trade in and out of the country, government officials and logistics directors say.
"Everything so far is business as usual," said Pat Volkman, director of order management and transportation for Huffy Bicycle Co. in Springboro, Ohio.
As part of the elevated terror alert, the Coast Guard has increased security at and around U.S. seaports, and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge is reportedly considering closing some seaports, though industry sources on Wednesday said they had heard nothing new about that idea. But the supply chain security regime implemented in recent months by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection is operating normally, officials say.
"Last night [Monday], the Department of Homeland Security directed that we increase the threat level to Alert Level Orange," Bureau of Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner said Tuesday in a statement to the Journal of Commerce.
"As a result, Customs and Border Protection has elevated scrutiny and increased the tempo of inspections at all of our country's ports of entry. However, at the present time, I do not believe that the change of the alert level is likely to affect the trade any more than it did when we moved to a heightened state of alert last month or in the fall of last year," Bonner said.
But concerns among leaders in the trade field are not abating regarding the potentially negative consequences of a tightened security posture.
"The assurances we're getting from top levels of government, including (Homeland Security) Secretary Ridge would indicate that they are very mindful of the need to keep our trade channels with other countries open. At the policy level there are good intentions," said John Simpson, president of the Washington-based American Association of Exporters and Importers. "The concern is what happens if there is any sort of a panic. Of there is a terrorist incident not related to trade, will there be a reflexive reaction to stop everything until they know what is going on and until they have things under control?"
