Customs has yet to fine security violators at ports. (Up Front).

Four months after a new security regulation covering ship cargoes went into effect, the U.S. Customs Service appears to be holding steamship lines on a loose leash.

As of Feb. 2, vessels calling on maritime ports were to be fined as much as $5,000 and/or barred from bringing containers onshore if they failed to file a Weiss Those cargo manifest with the who don t Customs Service at least 24 hours before Comply need the goods were loaded to pay a price at foreign ports.

The deadline was extended to May 1 after an outcry by the maritime industry, but as of May 29, the Customs office overseeing the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Hueneme had yet to levy any fines, according to Michael Fleming, a public affairs officer.

As of mid-January, when the steamships were preparing to meet the first deadline, virtually none of them were in compliance, according to a Customs Service evaluation at the time.

Fleming refused several requests to reveal the percentage of vessels that continue to violate the Container Security Initiative, or so-called 24-Hour Rule.

In a voice mail last week, he said that the "majority" are in compliance. It is not known whether Customs inspectors have turned back any cargo; Fleming refused to answer follow-up questions.

Some officials are frustrated with the delays.

"Additional regulations are not enough if they are not enforced" said L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss, who serves on the council's public safety committee.

"I would hope that everybody who does business through the ports would understand that there are strong reasons to boost security and that those who don't comply need to pay a price' he added.

On May 20, the Office of Homeland Security raised the threat level for terrorist attacks to "orange" (high risk) from "yellow" (elevated). That designation, made for the fourth time in the last year, prompted Los Angeles city officials to step up patrols and inspections of the 605 sites they identify as the most probable targets for terrorist attacks. The Port of L.A. is among them.

Reasons for delay

Steamship companies have had since last August to prepare for the 24-Hour Rule. That's when the Customs Service introduced the new requirements as a component of the Homeland Security Office's efforts to protect the U.S. against terrorist attacks.

Ship manifests are now required to contain assorted data, including the ports of origin and destination, vessel name and registry, voyage numbers, importers' names and addresses and specific contents of containers.

Importers may no longer list their cargo under the commonly used "FAK," an acronym for "freight of all kinds." The days of sending the manifests while the ship is out at sea are also supposed to be over.

But some steamship lines continue to be in non-compliance because importers, which operate on justin-time delivery systems, want to wait until the last moment to load their cargo onto a ship.

Additionally, ship operators often don't know what factories the goods are made in because consolidators fill a single container with goods from numerous smaller importers.

As a result, the Customs Service has been focusing most of its attention on ensuring that manifests contain specific cargo descriptions, said Robin Lanier, executive director of the Waterfront Coalition, an importers' trade group.

"Their enforcement has been slow and steady, and they are to be commended for that, by the way," she said. "They understand the rule has resulted in major impacts in the supply chain. The problem is the rule itself continues to be flawed."

Importers want to send cargo descriptions directly to Customs Service officials, Lanier said, but the agency continues to insist they supply the data to the steamship lines for inclusion in the manifests.

Despite the Custom Service's leniency, steamship lines do not appear to be flouting the new regulations. At a cost of $50,000 per day to operate a vessel, which needs to be at or near capacity to generate a profit, they can't afford to have their clients' cargo denied entry into a U.S. port or pay stiff fines.

Many vessels are no longer allowing even their most steady customers to load cargo onto ships within a day of departure. Failure to make the deadline means having to wait for the next ship to depart.

"The merchandise would arrive as much as a week later and miss the delivery date," said Charles Woo, chief executive of L.A.-based MegaToys Inc., a toy importer. "The order would then be cancelled sometimes."

It was evident to many in the shipping industry that ship companies using the L.A. and Long Beach ports were going to have problems with compliance.

Nearly all of the two dozen vessels failed to make the grade during a weeklong evaluation period in early January, according to a Jan. 9 letter to carriers from Vera Adams, the Custom Service director of the LA.-Long Beach seaport area.

The evaluation came at the end of a two-month transition period for vessels to update their logistics operations.

Although the letter warned that fines would begin Feb. 2, customs officials later granted the steamship lines a reprieve until May.

In lieu of fines, customs officials have been holding outreach programs to stress the importance of the regulations and help devise ways to bring the steamship lines into compliance.

But that is not enough to placate Weiss.

"In my view, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are not secure against terrorist attacks," he said. "Nor are there sufficient regulations or resources to prevent terrorists from using the ports to smuggle items into the country."