WASHINGTON — The Bush administration will negotiate to station American customs inspectors at the largest seaport in the Bahamas, where the United States is hiring a Hong Kong conglomerate to help detect nuclear materials inside cargo, a senior customs official said Monday.
Any such agreement will require approval by the Bahamian government. Diplomatic talks are expected to begin soon to give agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection a presence at the sprawling Freeport Container Port, just 65 miles from Florida’s coast.
“We’re now looking at going over there to begin discussions,” Jayson Ahern, assistant customs commissioner for field operations, told The Associated Press. “It does require bilateral discussions with another country, but we’re cautiously looking at being there by the fall.”
A story last week by the AP described the no-bid, $6 million contract the administration is finalizing with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. in the Bahamas, and generated criticism of the contract from some U.S. lawmakers and security experts.
The administration has acknowledged the deal represents the first time a foreign company will be involved in running sophisticated U.S. radiation-detection equipment at an overseas port without American customs agents present.
Ahern was expected to testify Tuesday at a Senate oversight hearing on radiation detectors in the United States. He said the Homeland Security Department originally intended to station U.S. customs inspectors in the Bahamas by spring under its port-security program, called the Container Security Initiative.
The pending diplomatic talks were confirmed by John Meredith, the group managing director for Hutchison’s port subsidiary, which runs the Bahamas port.
“They are getting close to fixing up a deal between the Bahamas and the U.S.,” Meredith told the AP. “If they want to put American people out there to have a look at it, that’s fine. But people should respect also that you’ve got to have trusted partnerships, both with the private sector and with foreign governments.”
The Bahamas contract is being finalized by the National Nuclear Security Administration, part of the Energy Department. It has said employees of Hutchison _ the world’s largest ports operator _ will drive the towering, truck-like radiation scanner at the port under the direct supervision of Bahamian customs officials.
Any positive reading would set off alarms monitored simultaneously by Bahamian customs inspectors at Freeport and by U.S. customs officials working at an anti-terrorism center in northern Virginia.
Under the contract, no U.S. officials would be stationed permanently in the Bahamas with the radiation scanner. Separately, there are no U.S. customs agents checking cargo containers in Freeport under the U.S. customs port-security program.
Last week, the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, said he was concerned there will be inadequate oversight in the Bahamas. Citing the AP story, Thompson sought assurances from the administration over the no-bid contract and asked when U.S. customs inspectors might be dispatched there.
Hutchison Whampoa is among the shipping industry’s most respected companies and was an early adopter of U.S. anti-terror measures. But its billionaire chairman, Li Ka-Shing, also has substantial business ties to China’s government that have raised U.S. concerns over the years.
By TED BRIDIS, The Associated Press
