296 research outputs found

    Trade facilitation for landlocked developing countries : a case study of the Palestinian economy

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    9/11 – ten years after: Security improvements in global container shipping during the recent decade

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    Containerised sea shipping plays a key role in the global trade and traf-fic, hence its relevance may not be underestimated in the global security. It shows specific vulnerabilities to harmful and illicit intentions to break the trade supply chain or simply attempting to use it as a tool to threaten security. A new era has arrived. Prior to 9/11 port operators and ship-ping companies handled the risks that threatened the supply chain securi-ty from an economic loss point of view while border control issues have traditionally focused on commercial illegality or smuggling of prohibited goods. The events of 9/11 however, highlighted the risk that supply chains might be abused by terrorists to cause enormous physical and economic damage. The event also pointed out many unhandled vulnera-bilities that could provide extraordinary opportunities for breaking the lines of defence. In response to that we have witnessed the proliferation of security-focused control regimes worldwide. Following a series of comprehensive analyses, numerous measures have been taken by na-tional and international actors on different levels and points of the global trade supply chain. From all these efforts the clear intention arose that we need to safeguard global supply chains by evaluating advanced cargo scanning and data integration capabilities at overseas ports and inviting them into an operable international security system

    Selective Screening of Rail Passengers, MTI 06-07

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    The threat of another major terrorist attack in the United States remains high, with the greatest danger coming from local extremists inspired by events in the Middle East. Although the United States removed the Taliban government and destroyed al Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan, events in Europe and elsewhere have shown that the terrorist network leadership remains determined to carry out further attacks and is capable of doing so. Therefore, the United States must systematically conduct research on terrorist strikes against transportation targets to distill lessons learned and determine the best practices for deterrence, response, and recovery. Those best practices must be taught to transportation and security professionals to provide secure surface transportation for the nation. Studying recent incidents in Europe and Asia, along with other research, will help leaders in the United States learn valuable lessons—from preventing attacks, to response and recovery, to addressing the psychological impacts of attacks to business continuity. Timely distillations of the lessons learned and best practices developed in other countries, once distributed to law enforcement, first responders, and rail- and subway-operating transit agencies, could result in the saving of American lives. This monograph focuses on the terrorist risks confronting public transportation in the United States—especially urban mass transit—and explores how different forms of passenger screening, and in particular, selective screening, can best be implemented to reduce those risks

    Trade facilitation implementations in U.S. Customs and Border Protection

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    More than seven decades of trade experience, since the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) entered in to force, has showed that the global trade brought prosperity to the nations and reduced the poverty. As a result, the importance of smooth flow of crossborder trade is well understood by all trader countries. Hence the notion of trade facilitation stays as a hot toping of international trade negotiations. Improving the hard infrastructure of trade environment is the priority focus of developing countries whereas developed countries shifted their focal point to modernize the soft infrastructure of their trade environment. United States, who enjoys the second largest share of global trade, is one of those counties whose cross-border implementations are closely followed by the rest of the world. Trade facilitation implementations and applications of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is used as a base for best practices in many countries. The perfect combination of facilitation and enforcement is key to establish and sustain a global competitiveness for US companies. After recognition of reasons behind the trade facilitation efforts around the globe and broad definition of the concept, this study explicates the background of trade facilitation and enforcement legislations as well as current trade facilitation implementations in U.S. Customs and Border Protection
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