Bersin confident cross-border trucking will be secure

By Robert J. Hawkins
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 2:47 p.m.

SAN DIEGO — Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin expressed strong confidence Wednesday in Mexico’s ability to develop a secure-cargo shipping program, similar to the one operated by his own agency that enables billions of dollars in cargo to move efficiently through the country’s 326 designated seaports, airports and border entry points.

Bersin was in San Diego to mark the 10th anniversary of the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, most commonly known by its acronym C-TPAT. Also in town are 1,200 representatives of companies involved in global shipping for a C-TAPT seminar -- one of three cargo-security seminars that the federal agency is sponsoring this year in various parts of the country.

C-TPAT was started after the 9/11 terrorist attack in New York as a way to keep the global supply chain flowing and while securing the country from an outside attack. It is a complicated dance in which global shippers share cargo data and enact security strategies as they build a level of “trustâ€