Local Closure - Port of New Orleans, LA (2002)- February 9, 2016
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
Due to the local Mardi Gras Holiday, the Port of New Orleans Office (Port Code 2002) will be closed for business on Tuesday, February 9, 2016.
Filers with businesses located in or have filed (RLF) entries in New Orleans will be granted an additional day for the payment of duties, taxes and fees.
New payment due date is February 10, 2016.
USDA Finalizes New Food Safety Measures to Reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in Poultry
U.S. Food & Drug Administration
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2016 -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced the finalization of new federal standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in ground chicken and turkey products, as well as in raw chicken breasts, legs, and wings. Based on scientific risk assessments, FSIS estimates that implementation of these standards will lead to an average of 50,000 prevented illnesses annually.
As part of this move to make chicken and turkey items that Americans frequently purchase safer to eat, FSIS has also updated its microbial testing schedule at poultry facilities and will soon begin posting more information online about individual companies' food safety performance.
"Over the past seven years, USDA has put in place tighter and more strategic food safety measures than ever before for meat and poultry products. We have made strides in modernizing every aspect of food safety inspection, from company record keeping, to labeling requirements, to the way we perform testing in our labs," said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "These new standards, in combination with greater transparency about poultry companies' food safety performance and better testing procedures, will help prevent tens of thousands of foodborne illnesses every year, reaching our Healthy People 2020 goals."
FSIS uses pathogen reduction performance standards to assess the food safety performance of establishments that prepare meat and poultry products. By making the standards for ground poultry tougher to meet, ground poultry products nationwide will have less contamination and therefore result in fewer foodborne illnesses. FSIS implemented performance standards for whole chickens in 1996 but has since learned that Salmonella levels increase as chicken is further processed into parts. Poultry parts like breasts, wings and others represent 80 percent of the chicken available for Americans to purchase. By creating a standard for chicken parts, and by performing regulatory testing at a point closer to the final product, FSIS can greatly reduce consumer exposure to Salmonella and Campylobacter.
"This approach to poultry inspection is based on science, supported by strong data, and will truly improve public health," said USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety Al Almanza. "The new performance standards will complement the many other proactive, prevention-based food policies that we've put in place in recent years to make America's supply of meat and poultry safer to eat."
For chicken parts, ground chicken, and ground turkey, FSIS is finalizing a pathogen reduction performance standard designed to achieve at least a 30 percent reduction in illnesses from Salmonella. For chicken parts and ground chicken, FSIS is finalizing a pathogen reduction performance standard designed to achieve at least a 32 percent reduction in illnesses from Campylobacter. Because FSIS has found the prevalence for Campylobacter in ground turkey to be already low, the reduction for this product is estimated to be 19 percent.
After these standards were proposed in early 2015, FSIS began to use routine sampling throughout the year rather than infrequent sampling on consecutive days to assess whether establishments' processes are effectively addressing Salmonella and Campylobacter. Once establishments have completed a full set of testing under the new standards, the agency will also begin posting online which facilities pass, meet or fail the new standards.
An estimated 1.2 million foodborne illnesses are thought to be caused every year by Salmonella, with approximately one-third or 360,000 of those illnesses attributed to FSIS-regulated products. In 2013, the agency released a Salmonella Action Plan, which created a blueprint for the agency to address this pathogen of significant public health concern. Today's announcement fulfills the major steps that FSIS had outlined in its plan.
Over the past six years, USDA has collaborated extensively with other federal partners to safeguard America's food supply, prevent foodborne illnesses and improve consumers' knowledge about the food they eat. USDA's FSIS is working to strengthen federal food safety efforts and develop strategies that emphasize a three-dimensional approach to prevent foodborne illness: prioritizing prevention; strengthening surveillance and enforcement; and improving response and recovery.
Some of the other steps taken to improve the safety of meat and poultry include adopting a zero-tolerance policy for raw beef products containing six additional strains of shiga-toxin producing E. coli; ensuring that beef products that have been mechanically tenderized are labeled as such and include validated cooking instructions; implementing a new "test and hold" policy in 2012, which significantly reduces consumer exposure to unsafe meat products; and working closely with FDA and CDC to collectively form the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC), which focuses on projects related to foodborne illness source attribution and will try to improve the classification of foods implicated in foodborne disease outbreaks.
Consumers with food safety questions can "Ask Karen," the FSIS virtual representative available 24 hours a day at AskKaren.gov or via smartphone at m.askkaren.gov.The toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from l0 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day. The online Electronic Consumer Complaint Monitoring System can also be accessed 24 hours a day at: www.fsis.usda.gov/reportproblem.
CBP's Super Bowl Security Starts with Cautious Deliveries
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
Truckloads of beer, bread, wine, furniture, lights, portable toilets and potato chips and more are now lining up at Levi's Stadium, home of Super Bowl 50. It takes lots of deliveries to fuel America's most popular sporting event and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers inspect them all.
The deliveries began Monday and in the first two hours a surge of nearly 100 trucks arrived. Local law enforcement working with CBP expect at least 300 vehicles per day will arrive right up until game time. All that volume couldn't be managed without the unique experience and equipment CBP brings to the staging area located next to the stadium, according to Brian Humphrey, director of field operations, San Francisco Field Office.
"The most exciting thing is the technological support we bring to law enforcement," he said. "No other law enforcement operation or private entity has our capability."
What Humphrey is referring to are mobile radiation portals, huge X-ray machines that can scan an entire tractor trailer or a small van in just a few minutes. The actual machine is suspended from adjustable poles attached to a truck. The truck then slowly drives alongside the vehicle being inspected revealing sharp images of its contents. CBP also keeps a backup unit on site in case the primary unit malfunctions. The operation is called non-intrusive capability.
The machines can also detect anything radioactive. That could mean a possible hidden explosive or just granite or kitty litter or similar items that emit natural radioactivity, explained said Officer Fred Ho. He said officers also carry small personal radiation detectors clipped to their service belt. If the portal detects radiation or the vehicle is suspected of containing a bomb, it will be driven into a U-shaped barricade built from stacks of shipping containers filled with dirt. The structure, constructed in a far corner of the inspection lot, would contain any blast.
Drivers bringing goods to the stadium, can't just arrive unannounced. Security measures begin by requiring them to register on a website days ahead. That gives local law enforcers an opportunity to vet both the company and the driver. When the truck arrives, the driver first must sign in.
Another CBP vetting operation is underway at San Francisco's Pier 54 from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. Those deliveries support Super Bowl City, a fan village near the city's downtown waterfront, and the NFL Experience, a football interactive theme park at Moscone Center.
For both inspections, CBP is working closely with the Santa Clara and San Francisco police. Overall, CBP is employing more than 100 officers and agents to ensure the public is protected during the Super Bowl. The federal team includes the FBI, California National Guard and the Department of Defense, said Humphrey.
Lumber Liquidators Inc. Sentenced for Illegal Importation of Hardwood and Related Environmental Crimes
Department of Justice
Virginia Hardwood Flooring Company to Pay $13 Million, Largest Lacey Act Penalty Ever
Virginia-based hardwood flooring retailer Lumber Liquidators Inc. was sentenced today in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, and will pay more than $13 million in criminal fines, community service and forfeited assets related to its illegal importation of hardwood flooring, much of which was manufactured in China from timber that had been illegally logged in far eastern Russia, in the habitat of the last remaining Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in the world, announced the Department of Justice.
In total, the company will pay $13.15 million, including $7.8 million in criminal fines, $969,175 in criminal forfeiture and more than $1.23 million in community service payments. Lumber Liquidators has also agreed to a five-year term of organizational probation and mandatory implementation of a government-approved environmental compliance plan and independent audits. In addition, the company will pay more than $3.15 million in cash through a related civil forfeiture. The more than $13.15 million dollar penalty is the largest financial penalty for timber trafficking under the Lacey Act and one of the largest Lacey Act penalties ever.
Lumber Liquidators pleaded guilty and was charged in October 2015 in the Eastern District of Virginia with one felony count of importing goods through false statements and four misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act, which makes it a crime to import timber that was taken in violation of the laws of a foreign country and to transport falsely-labeled timber across international borders into the United States. The charges describe Lumber Liquidators’ use of timber that was illegally logged in Far East Russia, as well as false statements on Lacey Act declarations which obfuscated the true species and source of the timber. This is the first felony conviction related to the import or use of illegal timber and the largest criminal fine ever under the Lacey Act.
“The case against Lumber Liquidators shows the true cost of turning a blind eye to the environmental laws that protect endangered wildlife,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This company left a trail of corrupt transactions and habitat destruction. Now they will pay a price for this callous and careless pursuit of profit.”
“This prosecution has been the result of hard work of federal agents and prosecutors who have been dedicated to protecting our natural habitats in the United States and around the world,” said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente of the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Today’s sentence – which includes the largest financial penalty ever under the Lacey Act – demonstrates the consequences companies will face if they knowingly accept illegally sourced materials and violate U.S. customs laws,” said Special Agent in Charge Clark E. Settles of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) in Washington, D.C.
“By knowingly and illegally sourcing timber from vulnerable forests in Asia and other parts of the world, Lumber Liquidators made American consumers unwittingly complicit in the ongoing destruction of some of the world's last remaining intact forests,” said Director Dan Ashe of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Along with hastening the extinction of the highly endangered Siberian tiger and many other native species, illegal logging driven by the company's greed threatens the many people who depend on sustainable use of these forests for food, clean water, shelter and legitimate jobs. These unprecedented sanctions show how seriously we take illegal trade, and I am grateful to the Service special agents and wildlife inspectors, Homeland Security agents, and Justice Department attorneys who halted Lumber Liquidators' criminal acts and held the company accountable under the law.”
According to a joint statement of facts filed with the court, from 2010 to 2013, Lumber Liquidators repeatedly failed to follow its own internal procedures and failed to take action on self-identified “red flags.” Those red flags included imports from high risk countries, imports of high risk species, imports from suppliers who were unable to provide documentation of legal harvest and imports from suppliers who provided false information about their products. Despite internal warnings of risk and non-compliance, very little changed at Lumber Liquidators.
For example, Lumber Liquidators employees were aware that timber from the Russian Far East was considered, within the flooring industry and within Lumber Liquidators, to carry a high risk of being illegally sourced due to corruption and illegal harvesting in that remote region. Despite the risk of illegality, Lumber Liquidators increased its purchases from Chinese manufacturers using timber sourced in the Russian Far East. In 2013, the defendant imported Russian timber logged under a concession permit that had been utilized so many times that the defendants’ imports alone exceeded the legal harvest allowance of Mongolian oak, Quercus mongolica, by more than 800 percent. The investigation revealed a prevalent practice in timber smuggling enterprises, where a company uses a seemingly legitimate government permit to log trees. Corruption and criminal activity along the supply chain results in the same permit being used multiple times and in areas outside of the designated logging area, sometimes vastly exceeding its legal limits.
On other occasions, Lumber Liquidators falsely reported the species or harvest country of timber when it was imported into the United States. In 2013, Lumber Liquidators imported Mongolian oak from Far East Russia which it declared to be Welsh oak and imported merpauh from Myanmar which it declared to be mahogany from Indonesia.
The illegal cutting of Mongolian oak in far eastern Russia is of particular concern because those forests are home to the last 450 wild Siberian tigers, Panthera tigris altaica. Illegal logging is considered the primary risk to the tigers’ survival, because they are dependent on intact forests for hunting and because Mongolian oak acorns are a chief food source for the tigers’ prey species. Mongolian oak forests are also home to the highly endangered Amur leopard, Panthera pardus orientalis, of which fewer than 50 remain in the wild. In June 2014, in response to illegal logging and the decline in tiger populations, Mongolian oak was added to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix III.
The $1,230,825 in community service payments is being provided to two Congressionally-chartered recipients, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NWFW) and the USFWS Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund. One project that will be funded is the development of a wood identification device that if successful, could fill a critical gap in enforcement when it comes to identifying the species of timber at a border or in an enforcement scenario. The device would be able to identify timber species that are listed on the CITES Appendices, including the species that were at issue in this case. If U.S. border officials would have had access to such a device in 2011, then perhaps Lumber Liquidators could have been flagged for violation years ago, thus averting the flow of money back to China and Far East Russia in support of illegal logging. Other projects would involve protecting, researching and preserving the Siberian tiger, Amur leopard and their habitat.
The case was jointly investigated by agents of the USFWS and HSI as part of Operation Oakenshield. The case is being prosecuted by Patrick M. Duggan and Christopher L. Hale of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Stephen Haynie and Kevin P. Hudson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Norfolk.
CBP Gauges Automation of U.S. Virgin Islands Trade Entry Process
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
Seeks to improve a paper-based entry process for all imported commercial products
ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced today that they continue to assess a viable way to incorporate the U.S. Virgin Islands into the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) to expedite the importation process.
San Juan Field Office Assistant Director for Trade, Edward Ryan, and ACE Single Window Director, Stephen Hilsen, recently visited the Area Port of St. Thomas to gather information about the current cargo clearance process in the USVI in which all custom entries are made by Customs Business Service companies (“filers”) and/or importers in person.
The current process lacks electronic communication from the filers to CBP, hence, a heavy paper environment is created in all USVI ports of entry.
In addition, CBP visited local USVI customs business service companies to gather information about the needs of the trade community that can improve and facilitate the customs declaration process.
“We need to make the trade entry process in the USVI more customer friendly,” stated Ryan. “By automating the customs entry process, we can be more efficient in working in the USVI and also better support our partner government agencies.”
CBP requirements in the USVI are unique because it operates under the Danish Public Law 64; a law that remains in effect since 1914, when the Dutch sold the islands to the U.S.
Federal statutes require CBP to collect customs duties on behalf of the USVI, this is not subject to any other agreements, as well as the authority and broad discretion to administer the customs laws of the USVI.
Eagle Pass CBP Officers Seize Nearly 1,700 pounds of Marijuana at Port
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
EAGLE PASS, Texas – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry recently intercepted a shipment of narcotics from making entry into the United States, seizing more than 1,600 pounds of contraband.
On the afternoon of Jan. 29, CBP officers at Camino Real International Bridge, inspected a 1996 Kenworth tractor trailer hauling a flatbed trailer as it arrived in the United States from Mexico. Officers utilized a non-intrusive imaging system for inspection and retrieved 697 packages of marijuana within the commercial shipment of bricks. Officers seized a total of 1,698.64 pounds of marijuana worth an estimated $339,728.86.
The driver, a 31-year-old man from Piedras Negras, was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation.
The Office of Field Operations is the primary organization within U.S. Customs and Border Protection tasked with an anti-terrorism mission at our nation’s ports. CBP officers screen all people, vehicles and goods entering the United States while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel. Their mission also includes carrying out border-related duties, including narcotics interdiction, enforcing immigration and trade laws, and protecting the nation's food supply and agriculture industry from pests and diseases.