HONG KONG (AP) – A Hong Kong conglomerate that has won a federal contract to screen U.S.-bound cargo in the Bahamas for terror threats defended the plan on Saturday, saying it would not be feasible for American officials to work in ports across the globe.

Some U.S. lawmakers and security experts have expressed concern about the contract for Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. because American customs agents will not be working with the screening equipment, designed to detect smuggled radioactive materials.

The Hong Kong company is in the final stages of being awarded a no-bid, $6 million contract from the United States for screening at the Freeport Container Terminal in the Bahamas, just 65 miles from the American shoreline.

John Meredith, group managing director for Hutchison Port Holdings, the maritime subsidiary for Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. and the world’s largest ports company, said it would be impractical for American agents to work in every port that handles U.S.-bound cargo.

Meredith said the best option for the United States is to rely on trusted agents using sophisticated inspection equipment to scan shipments at ports abroad.

Among concerns is that a low-paid employee might be vulnerable to bribes and provide terrorists with information about how the equipment works and which material triggers alarms, experts said.

But Meredith told The Associated Press his firm has elaborate security checks, including filming inspectors checking the containers.

Meredith said the U.S. cannot afford to post its own customs agents in ports all over the world. Even if the U.S. agents were abroad, they would not have jurisdiction and would be restricted by local laws, he said.

However, U.S. customs inspectors already work at 43 foreign ports helping to inspect and scan cargo with the permission of foreign governments under a U.S. port-security program known as the “container security initiative.” Some of the 43 ports are operated by Hutchison, and each of these ports has radiation scanners. Cargo that flows through the ports is expedited through American security procedures once it reaches the United States.

At these 43 ports, cargo scanning and inspection is done by local government customs agents, but U.S. customs inspectors work alongside them, said Kristi Clemens, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“We accompany them or do it in conjunction with them,” she said. “It is the foreign port operator’s equipment, but we must be allowed to also inspect the cargo that is being transshipped.”

Customs security procedures at the Bahamas port are not rigorous enough to qualify it for participation in the U.S. customs security program, and no American agents work there.

Meredith said that since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, Hutchison has been at the forefront of the movement to protect shipping lanes from terrorist threats. He said the company – which is among the shipping industry’s most respected – has pushed for more advanced X-ray and radiation-detecting systems.

“We’ve been doing it because we think it’s a good thing to do, but we don’t like to get kicked in the teeth doing it,” Meredith said.

Meredith said that if the U.S. government doesn’t want to trust inspectors from responsible companies and governments, to screen shipments, then it would have to build its own offshore inspection sites. That would be far too expensive, he said.

Another option would be not to inspect cargo until it arrives at U.S. ports, but that would risk an attack on the American coast, he said.

Hutchison’s billionaire chairman, Li Ka-shing, has substantial business ties to the Chinese government that have raised U.S. concerns over the years. But Meredith said Li’s relations with Chinese leaders should not be an issue.

“It’s unfair to go and chop a guy up because he knows people,” he said. “He’s a 100-percent self-made businessman. He’s respected by heads of state everywhere.”

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., toured Hutchison’s port in Hong Kong on Saturday and said he was impressed with the equipment and how it was operated.

“The technology is there and we’ve seen it first hand,” Schumer said. “It is impressive and it does the job. They have a program where every container can be inspected for nuclear weapons, can be scanned.”

Schumer, who raised early questions about the Bahamas contract, said he does not oppose awarding the contract to a foreign company. But he believes U.S. customs agents should be stationed at the Bahamas port.

“The Bahamas basically said no and we sort of shrugged our shoulders to have customs agents in the Bahamas just overseeing things,” Schumer said. “We ought to push harder to do that.”

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Correspondents Sylvia Hui in Hong Kong and Ted Bridis in Washington contributed to this report.

AP-ES-03-25-06 1641EST

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