CBP 10+2 ISF 2009 Outreach Schedule

With the start date of DHS’ 10+2 security filing rapidly approaching, CBP is hosting trade outreach events in various cities across the country. The events are designed to provide the global trade community with additional information regarding the new Importer Security Filing and Additional Carrier Requirements (10+2) as well as provide a basic understanding of how to fulfill the new requirements. The start date of January 26, 2009 is rapidly approaching so if you live in one of the below cities and are still a little unsure of what to expect, register for one the events here at the CBP’s website.

Cities scheduled for January:

Oakland/Burlingame, CA – Wednesday January 14, 2009

Baltimore, MD – Thursday January 22, 2009

Philadelphia, PA – Friday January 23,2009

Charleston, SC – Wednesday January 28, 2009

Savannah, GA – Thursday January 29, 2009

Cities scheduled for February:

Houston, TX – Wednesday,February 4th, 2009

JFK Area, NY – Thursday, February 5th, 2009

I would also suggest (if you haven’t already) checking with your freight forwarder, customs broker, or anyone else you have designated to handle your ISF filings for specific information on how they plan to comply with the new requirements.

Marine insurance on the rise thanks to Somali piracy

No surprise:

The price of protecting a ship or its cargo against piracy through insurance was rising, he said, and this would feed the reinsurance market.

Underwriters estimate that shipowners have paid about $20m in ransoms to pirates this year, substantially pushing up the cost of claims.

Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd’s, said insurers did not want to pay ransoms but this appeared to be the only means of resolving incidents. “The real solution is to stop these people from operating. That is what we have to concentrate on,” he said, calling for more resources for naval forces.

Insurers said that while shipowners and operators faced the prospect of higher policy prices, there was no risk of cover against pirate attacks being withdrawn.

“Lloyd’s job is … to take on risks from industry around the world. This is a big risk and it is for us to do it. We have to price that cover commercially,” said Lord Levene.

Indian Navy displays the proper response to Somali piracy: offense is the best defense

Update: Nov 26 2008 – Whoops. Turns out that “mother ship” may have been a Thai fishing vessel. Although in India’s defense the vessel was in the process of being boarded by the pirates and India insists that the pirates fired first.

Wicharn said the Ekawat Nava 5 was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was set upon by pirates off the Horn of Africa. The pirates were seizing control of the ship when the Tabar moved in, he said.

Wicharn said he learned the fate of his vessel from a Cambodian crew member who survived the gunfire and drifted in the ocean for six days before he was plucked to safety by a passing ship. The sailor was recovering in a hospital in Yemen, he said.

Wicharn said his ship made a distress call November 18 as it was chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the connection was lost midway. The owners, Sirichai Fisheries, had not heard from the crew since then.

Original Post:
Well, well, well. How about your boasts of “We are not scared of the U.S. troops or any other troops stationed off our waters” now? Hopefully you are at least nervous about the Indian Navy who sunk one of your vessels:

The success for INS Tabar to neutralise rising sea piracy off Somalia came in the first major offensive from among dozens of warships from several countries protecting shipping lanes in the area when it destroyed the ‘mother ship’ of a group of pirates after a fierce battle yesterday.

The pro-active operation from the Indian Navy comes a week after it saved two merchant vessels — one from India and other from Saudi Arabia — from being hijacked by sea pirates on November11 in the Gulf of Aden near the Horn of Africa.

So far there has been little risk and lots of reward for Somalia’s piracy industry. With more cooperation from the global community and a pro-active, strong response to suspected pirates in the area, perhaps piracy efforts can be curbed. Forbes has a commentary today advocating for a “coalition of the willing” and also that the rules of engagement be liberalized:

Differing national rules of engagement would have to be better harmonized and perhaps rethought. For example, a U.S. crew can act preemptively only once it determines pirates are “in the act” of piracy, yet they must back off once hostages have been taken for fear of imperiling them. It might therefore make sense to establish procedures whereby an American ship making initial contact with a pirate vessel can delegate interdiction responsibility to a vessel with more liberal engagement policies–say, a French one–or indeed to consider liberalizing rules of engagement.

Meanwhile, EagleSpeak, who regularly links to and comments on Somalia piracy, suggests it may take more than simple naval patrols:

And, as is obvious to mariners, but perhaps not so to landsmen, there is lot of sea out there off Somalia. Somalia has the longest coastline on the African continent and, as now seems evident, the pirates are willing to extend their reach up to 500 miles off shore, that’s a whole lot more water than can be patrolled by 20 or 30 or 40 ships.

Once again I say, as I set out here, escorts and anti-pirate patrols might contain (somewhat) the pirates, but if you want them defeated, you need to take down their shore support. With Somalia, that means that you might end up owning the “Somalia problem” and I see no nation or group of nations ready to step forward to take on that challenge.

As Somali piracy worsens, Asia sees an improvement

It was not too long ago that Asia, primarily the Strait of Malacca, was the piracy capital of the world. However, while large cargo ships and tankers were occasionally attacked, it was mostly smaller vessels that were at risk and regional policing by neighboring countries have really curtailed pirate activities in the area. Today via the NY Times comes a report that while Somalia has quickly displaced Asia as the worst area in the world for maritime piracy, Asia has seen a marked improvement:

“It will be very difficult to copycat the Somalia situation in Asia,” said Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Center at the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “The governments here are more committed and have more resources. In fact, the attacks here are coming down.”

A regional piracy-monitoring agency in Singapore said maritime attacks in Asia in the first nine months of the year dropped 11 percent compared to 2007 and 32 percent from 2006.

Meanwhile, the hijacking of the Saudi tanker is just another red push-pin on the 2008 master piracy map maintained by the maritime bureau, a private group in the Malaysian capital.

The hundreds of pins denoting attacks and hijackings are heavily clustered in three regions — the Gulf of Aden and the eastern coast of Somalia; the coast of West Africa, particularly off Nigeria; and the Indonesian archipelago. But the vast majority of the incidents off Indonesia, and throughout Southeast Asia, are low-level attacks against small vessels, the petty theft of cargo or the robbery of crew members.

Maritime experts in Southeast Asia cite naval patrols by Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore — known in the anti-piracy business as “the littoral states” — for the significant reduction in attacks, and particularly a decrease in hijackings. Satellite monitoring also is used.

I’d imagine this would be the ideal approach to combating piracy in Somalia as well, but Somalia and its neighbors are not Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. As I mentioned in the past:

An ideal approach might be a cooperative military function among neighboring countries, much the same way piracy in the Malacca Strait has gone down thanks to regional policing by countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. But considering the poverty and corruption of Somalia and its neighbors, it’s hard to argue against international policing of the waters by the U.S. or other allies.

Somalia doesn’t really have a government to speak of and it’s most likely the violent and powerful warlords who more or less run the country who are behind the bulk of the lucrative piracy industry. Somalia’s neighbors include such countries as Kenya, Djibouti, and Yemen, all of which are severely limited in contributing to a regional police force to combat piracy. That means the burden for providing security around the waters of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden lie on the over-tasked CTF-150 or individual security operations carried out by individual countries or vessel operators. While France and others are clamoring for the U.N. to do something about it, I wouldn’t hold my breathe.

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