Ports' security costs to soar

Major ports around the country face multimillion-dollar bills to beef up security if they want to continue trading with the United States, the Maritime Safety Authority (MSA) says.

MSA director Russell Kilvington said this week that in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks last year, ports worldwide would soon need a high-security rating to continue maritime trading with the US.

The issues are to be discussed at a diplomatic security conference of the International Maritime Organisation in London next month.

Kilvington, who will attend the conference with deputy director Tony Martin, said no port in the world had a suitable security plan.

"If you want to trade with a United States port, which is a top-security port, then you yourself have to be a top-security port.

"This is a big change."

Kilvington said there was also a big debate in the US about a special security identity card for seafarers rather than a passport, which New Zealand and Australia favoured.

The higher level of security for visiting ships included "everything including the kitchen sink" such as X-raying containers, inspecting cargoes before ships arrived in port and identifying and tracking ships as they moved up and down the coast and in New Zealand territorial waters.

An automatic ship identification system using VHF radio and ship-mounted transponders had been fast-tracked and would be launched in the next two years rather than in 2007.

The system would be installed on all merchant ships trading with New Zealand. It has already been installed on most fishing vessels.

The system would have identified the merchant ship which ran down and sank a yacht off North Cape 10 days and then ignored a mayday call.

Kilvington said the move to increased port security was still in its infancy. Although there had been no talk of a new government agency to deal with the security issue, it emphasised the need for greater co-operation among existing agencies, such as customs, police, the navy and others.

He said chief executives of all the port companies were told this week of the importance of the new security requirements and would have no choice other than to comply if they wanted to trade with the US.

"They can't possibly ignore this," he said.

"If you want to trade with the United States it is non-negotiable.

"The pace of change is quite dramatic and it is going to hit home."

- NZPA