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ISO Chain of Accountability Backs Products and Processes for Security Seals
International C-TPAT (Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism) shippers transporting cargo into the US are required to use high security seals per the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) C-TPAT program. High security seals must be able to delay and/or make obvious any attempt at unauthorized entry into a trailer or container. These seals typically are steel bolt seals or heavy cable seals. The qualifications that these seals must meet have been established and are tested and verified by a hierarchy of reputable organizations and a system that ensures product and manufacturer integrity.
The new international standard driving the C-TPAT shipping community and the global security seal industry today is ISO/PAS 17712:2006 Mechanical Seal Standard for Freight Containers. ISO/ PAS 17712:2006 guidelines stipulate that seals undergo tensile, shear, bending, and impact resistance tests using a standard set of procedures developed by government, industry, and association technical committees, subcommittees, and working groups. CBP requires that a high security seal meet or exceed the results required in each of diese mechanical tests in order to earn the high security rating per ISO/PAS 17712:2006 performance standards and to meet C-TPAT compliance.
This standard also requires a seal manufacturer to consistently meet three ISO process, quality, and product performance requirements:
1 . The seal manufacturers production facilities are ISO 9001:2000 compliant;
2. The seal manufacturer complies with ISO/PAS 17712:2006, Annex A, Seal Manufacturers' Best Practices;
3. The seal manufacturer submits an ISO/ IEC 17025:2005-Accredited Lab Test Report from an independent laboratory for each cross-border high security seal supplied to the C-TPAT shipping community.
Although seals may be marked with an "H" stamp to designate the high security performance rating, the "H" alone does not guarantee compliance for CBP officials. It is important to use verifiable high security cargo seals from an ISO 17712 compliant security seal manufacturer for US cross-border shipments. C-TPAT and FAST (Free and Secure Trade) membership both require that shippers, freight...