The US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CPB) delivers presentations on the new guidelines in Bangladesh as the programme will have impact on local business, said the US embassy in Dhaka yesterday.

The presentation will take place at the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) at 4:00pm today and at Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) at 3:00pm Tuesday.

"Bangladeshi business representatives will need to know how these new programmes will impact their business and what they need to do to ensure conformity with America's stronger security guidelines," says the US mission in a news release.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the new regulation on January 29, 2003, requiring domestic and foreign food facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food for human or animal consumption in the US to register with the agency by December 12 this year.

"The Container Security Initiative (CSI) is a programme that secures an indispensable, but vulnerable, link in the chain of global trade: the oceangoing sea container."

The 24-hour rule requires the advanced transmission of manifest information to CBP. The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is a programme aimed at enhancing supply-chain security.

According to the announcement, the programme is one of the keystones in implementing the Public Health Security and Bio-terrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002.