Container Seals on Maritime Cargo

October 16, 2008 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection are requiring that all containers in transit to the United States must have an ISO/PAS 17712 certified seal.  The requirement will take effect on October 15, 2008. However, there will be an informed compliance period before full enforcement goes into effect.

This affects any loaded container that is discharged from a vessel at a U.S. port or remains onboard (FROB) a vessel that arrives at a U.S. port.

The following types of containers are exempt from this regulation:

• Tanks
• Non-standard containers (such as open top)
• Containers that simply cannot accommodate a seal meeting the ISO standard (i.e. custom built containers)
• Empty containers 

When a container has been affixed with a seal that meets or exceeds the ISO/PAS 17712 standards, and the shipper wishes to apply a supplementary, additional seal to the container to provide an enhanced level of security, such supplementary seals do not have to meet the ISO/PAS 17712 standards.

Examples of ISO/PAS 17712 seals:

We suggest you contact the vendor that supplies your current seals for more details regarding the ISO/PAS 17712 standards. 

Copies of the ISO/PAS 17712 standards may be purchased from the International Organization for Standardization, 1 rue de Varembe, CH-1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland or the American National Standards Institute, 25 West 43^rd Street, New York, NY10036.

In order to assist our customers with compliance to the new regulations, for the next 60 days we will apply (free of charge) an ISO/PAS seal, if one is not present at the time the container is tendered to Tropical. 

If you have any questions, please contact your local sales representative or the Customer Service Team at 800-638-TROP (8767) or 561-881-3999.

Complete contact listings, including telephone and fax numbers and email addresses information can be found 24/7/365 on our website on the Bookings and Customer Service page – found in the Contact area of our website.