(BRUSSELS) - New laws to protect the United States from a ship-borne dirty bomb or weapons of mass destruction will impose a major financial burden on to US trade partners and consumers, experts warned Tuesday.

The measures, to enter force in 2012, will oblige countries to scan every one of the estimated 18 million cargo containers heading to the United States each year before they leave their port of departure.

Even if enough containers are checked to make the move efficient, it could cost around a billion dollars by the time the laws come into effect, according to expert calculations.

"We already see concerns about the high cost of living, with the massive rise in the price of fuel and commodities," said Frederic Carluer, head of the customs and logistics programme at Le Havre University in France.

"If you add to that a significant increase in the cost of transport of the merchandise that makes up our everyday lives -- from toys to mobile phones or televisions -- public opinion will surely be against it."

World Customs Organisation chief Michel Danet said: "It's clear -- whether it be 30 dollars, 50 dollars or 80 dollars (per container) -- that will be passed down to the consumer. Governments won't be handing out any presents."

Ports in Europe currently scan about three percent of US-bound containers, using a risk management approach that the experts, at a conference in Brussels, said allows authorities to pin-point likely problems quite accurately.

However the US Congress, pushed by the findings of the commission set up to analyse security failings that led to the September 11, 2001 suicide attacks, insists on 100 percent container scanning.

Carluer warned that it was highly likely, in any case, that no port would be able to check every US-bound shipping box by 2012, although some might be in a position to scan one in three at that time.

He also accused the European Commission of sending a bad signal to industry by failing to gird them for the possible changes, while ports in Asia prepare in advance, to make best use of the market opportunties.

"The European Commission's position is quite passive. It is betting that this won't happen," he told reporters.

"We (in Europe) are losing ground compared to other companies that are a lot more aggressive and are supported by their governments," he said.

He cited the example of Dubai, whose port authorities have decided to increase the number of scanners they have from three to 11, and also to buy a US brand of scanning machine.

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