T&T Scans Over 20% Of Shipping Containers

Trinidad and Tobago scans five times as many shipping containers entering its ports than the USA, and eleven times more than the European Union. This, from Minister of Finance Colm Imbert in response to commentary in the media regarding a recent disclosure that the Customs and Excise Division scans 17% of containers entering Trinidad and Tobago at official ports of entry. Minister Imbert, via a media release, gave statistics from the July 2021 American Journal of Transportation which reveals that Customs and Border Protection currently scans 3.7% of the roughly 11 million containers entering the US each year. He says further that a publication by the European Commission reveals that only 2% of containers are physically inspected worldwide, whereas Trinidad and Tobago physically inspects over 20% of containers, or ten times the world average. The Finance Minister says virtually all countries in the world use a risk-based assessment system and intelligence gathered by local security agencies and international security partners to profile importers and identify suspicious or “high-risk” cargo, which is why their level of scanning and physical inspection of containers is so much less than Trinidad and Tobago.