Port Authority Ready for First Major Snowstorm of 2016
Port of New York & New Jersey
With a significant winter storm bringing heavy snow and blizzard-like conditions forecast to hit the New York-New Jersey region beginning Saturday morning and continuing until Sunday afternoon, the Port Authority today announced that it has taken significant measures to ensure safe, efficient operations at its airports, tunnels, bridges and PATH system throughout the winter event.
The National Weather Service currently forecasts the heaviest snow beginning late Saturday afternoon into early Sunday morning, when blizzard conditions may develop as the storm tracks up the East Coast into New England.
In advance of the first snowflakes, the Port Authority has made extensive preparations for personnel and equipment at all of its facilities. Operations personnel will work 12-hour shifts to ensure that facilities can be operated safely. The airports, bridges, tunnels and PATH also have snow desks where key personnel analyze weather reports and deploy staff and equipment. The Port Authority also will activate its Ernesto L. Butcher Emergency Operations Center this weekend, which is staffed with top agency officials who will monitor the storm and make decisions as conditions warrant.
The Port Authority also is in contact with the states of New York and New Jersey, as well as other local and federal officials and agencies to discuss regional preparations for the upcoming winter storm.
With a storm of this magnitude, airlines sometimes cancel flights in advance, so travelers should check with their carriers to make sure their flight will be taking off before going to the airport. The Port Authority also will have supplies of cots and other essential items ready to accommodate ticketed passengers who may become stranded at the airports.
The Port Authority also urges bus travelers to check with their carriers before going to the bus terminals since many public and private carriers may cancel service if conditions warrant. The agency also may impose speed restrictions on its crossings, or close them entirely, if weather conditions warrant.
- The Port Authority has the following winter weather equipment and supplies ready at its major transportation facilities:
- More than 200 pieces of snow equipment at its airports, including melters that can liquefy up to 500 tons of snow an hour and plows that can clear snow at 40 mph;
- More than 60 pieces of snow equipment at its bridges and tunnels, including nearly two dozen plows and spreaders at the George Washington Bridge, the world’s busiest vehicular crossing;
- Thousands of tons of salt and sand for airport roads and parking lots, plus thousands of tons of salt for the bridges and tunnels;
- Hundreds of thousands of gallons of liquid anti-icer chemicals at the airports, which prevent snow and ice from bonding to runways and taxiways, plus thousands of tons of solid de-icers, which break up snow and ice already on the ground;
- Plow-equipped trains, liquid snow-melting agent trains and a "jet engine" plow to remove snow from PATH tracks, and snow blowers, plows and spreaders to clear station entrances, roads that serve PATH's 13 stations, and various support facilities.
For up-to-the-minute updates on Port Authority crossings, airports and the PATH system, travelers are encouraged to sign up for Port Authority alerts at http://www.paalerts.com/. Travelers may also call 511 or visit 511NY.org or 511NJ.org for further information on highway conditions.
Iran Sanctions Update
Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP
January 16, 2016, marked “Implementation Day” for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached by the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), the European Union, and Iran.
Prior to Implementation Day, the U.S. Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR) prohibited foreign entities that are owned or controlled by U.S. persons from supplying goods or services to Iran. 31 C.F.R. § 560.215. A foreign entity is “owned or controlled” by a U.S. person if the U.S. person:
(i) Holds a 50 percent or greater equity interest by vote or value in the entity;
(ii) Holds a majority of seats on the board of directors of the entity; or
(iii) Otherwise controls the actions, policies, or personnel decisions of the entity.
As part of the United States’ implementation of the JCPOA, effective January 16, 2016, OFAC has issued General License H: Authorizing Certain Transactions Relating to Foreign Entities Owned or Controlled by a United States Person. General License H significantly relaxes the prior restrictions on non-U.S. entities that are owned or controlled by a U.S. person. Broadly stated, such entities may now conduct business with Iran or with any person/entity under the jurisdiction of Iran, subject to several qualifications.
Under General License H, the restrictions on non-U.S. entities that are owned or controlled by a U.S. person include the following:
- No direct exportation or re-exportation of goods from the U.S.;
- No transactions with an individual or entity listed on the SDN List or the FSE List;
- No transactions involving an item subject to DOC license requirements (without prior authorization from DOC);
- No transactions with military, paramilitary, intelligence or law enforcement entities of the Government of Iran; and
- Generally, no transactions related to weapons, weapons delivery systems or nuclear activity.
General License H also places limitations on the role that a U.S. person can play in transactions involving Iran. A U.S. person may be involved in the initial determination to engage in business with Iran and may establish internal procedures to enable such transactions. However, a U.S. person “may not be involved in the Iran-related day-to-day operations of a U.S.-owned or -controlled foreign entity.” Prohibited conduct includes approving, financing, facilitating or guaranteeing any specific Iran-related transaction.
Separately, the U.S. will be lifting import restrictions on carpets and foodstuffs (including caviar and pistachios) from Iran. This change will go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register.
Scope Change: USITC Adds Five Additional Articles to Investigation Concerning Possible Modifications to the U.S. GSP for Additionals, Removals, and Competitive Need Limitation Waivers
U.S. International Trade Commission
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has revised the scope for a recently initiated investigation concerning possible modifications to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
The investigation, Generalized System of Preferences: Possible Modifications, 2015 Review (Investigation No. 332-556), was initiated on January 11, 2016, on the basis of a request by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).
The revision was requested by the U.S. Trade Representative in a letter received on January 12, 2016. The letter asked the USITC to add to the investigation five additional statistical reporting numbers related to certain handbags and travel goods products that are being considered for addition to the list of GSP-eligible products.
The five HTS additional statistical reporting numbers are:
- 4202.92.30.20;
- 4202.92.30.31;
- 4202.92.30.91;
- 4202.92.90.26 and;
- 4202.92.90.60.
As requested, the USITC will provide its advice as to the probable economic effect on total U.S. imports, U.S. industries producing like or directly competitive articles, and on U.S. consumers of the elimination of U.S. import duties on the five articles for all beneficiary developing countries under the GSP program, least-developed beneficiary developing countries (LDBDCs), beneficiary developing countries of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and both LDBDCs and AGOA beneficiary developing countries combined under the GSP program.
In addition, the USTR also requested that the USITC provide advice with respect to whether like or directly competitive products were being produced in the United States on January 1, 1995, for the additional five articles as well as all of the products being considered for addition to and removal from the list of GSP-eligible products listed in Tables A and B of the Annex to the December 30, 2015, request letter.
No dates have changed in the investigation. The USITC will submit its confidential report to USTR by April 28, 2016. As soon as possible thereafter, the USITC will, as requested by USTR, issue a public version of the report containing only the unclassified sections, with any business confidential information and classified information deleted.
A public hearing will be held on February 24, 2016, and requests to appear at the hearing must be received by 5:15 p.m. on February 1, 2016. Written submissions must be received no later than 5:15 p.m. on February 29, 2016.
Further information on the revised scope of this investigation and appropriate submissions appears in the USITC’s notice of expansion of scope, dated January 19, 2015. Information on the original investigation can be found in the USITC’s notice of investigation, dated January 12, 2016. Both notices can be obtained from the USITC Internet site (www.usitc.gov) or by contacting the Office of the Secretary at the above address or at 202-205-2000.
USITC general factfinding investigations, such as this one, cover matters related to tariffs or trade and are generally conducted at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative, the House Committee on Ways and Means, or the Senate Committee on Finance. The resulting reports convey the Commission's objective findings and independent analyses on the subjects investigated. The Commission makes no recommendations on policy or other matters in its general factfinding reports. Upon completion of each investigation, the USITC submits its findings and analyses to the requester. General factfinding investigation reports are subsequently released to the public, unless they are classified by the requester for national security reasons.
Bronze Treasures, Prehistoric Bird and Other Relics Returned to China
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
Smuggled artifacts discovered by CBP officers in Florida and a 120 million-year-old dinosaur fossil held by CBP officers in Ohio were recently returned to China. Two Florida art dealers were arrested. Francois Lorin, 74, maintained a scheme to smuggle antiquities into the country. Eric Prokopi, 38, a self-described commercial paleontologist, made a living selling dinosaur bones. Both dealers forged documents to mislead officers.
The saga began in 2011 when a shipment from a Hong Kong trade show arrived at Miami International Airport. It caught the eye of Officer Reynaldo Marte because the export certificate was missing. Marte, along with officers David Fajardo, Fernald Brown, Raymond Collazo and Jose Negron, decided to open the crate.
“We found items that were extremely old and seemed out-of-place,” Fajardo recalls of the nearly 500 objects that were haphazardly packed with many items not even listed on the mismatched paperwork they found in the shipment. That raised more suspicions. Within the batch were ancient jade disks and cylinders, a bronze mirror and bronze container inlaid with gold and silver.
Marte contacted the shipper, Lorin & Son, LLC, and requested evidence showing the shipment was legally imported into the U.S., explaining the artifacts would be held by CBP until that proof was produced. Instead, Marte was contacted several times by the shipper’s lawyer, demanding that the shipment be released to his client, Francois Lorin.
That heightened suspicions even more.
“It was odd to have a lawyer call so many times and show so much interest,” said Marte. “He even threatened me legally.”
Meanwhile, CBP’s Office of Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures called an expert in Asian antiquities to evaluate the shipment. Their hunch proved right. The batch was valued at more than $3.1 million, more than double the $1.4 million claimed by Lorin in the shipping papers.
However, smuggling contraband wasn’t what snared Lorin. Through his lawyer, Lorin submitted forged documents falsely showing the artifacts in the shipment were legally purchased before 2009, when an agreement between the U.S. and China took hold. That accord prohibits imports of certain antiquities dating before 907 without permission from the Chinese or evidence the import complies with the agreement.
At that point, the case was turned over to Alicia Centeno, a Miami-based Homeland Security special agent specializing in artifact smuggling. Like the CBP officers, she requested that Lorin prove when he purchased the artifacts. And, like the CBP officers, she experienced the same stonewalling.
Lorin’s lawyers flooded her office with paperwork for all 500 items. “They tried to confuse and frustrate us,” with overwhelming documentation, she said. Many of those documents listed sellers Lorin claimed to have purchased artifacts from. When Centeno contacted them—a slow and laborious effort—many admitted backdating invoices for the Florida art dealer.
The stalling tactics didn’t work and the case was eventually prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office, Southern District of Florida. Lorin pleaded guilty to obstruction and was sentenced to three years’ probation, received a $50,000 fine and agreed to forfeit 21 Chinese artifacts.
Then there’s Prokopi. The fossil he tried smuggling into the United States, a bird about the size of a cafeteria tray, might have been the star attraction of the items returned to the Chinese, but it was just the tip of the iceberg for this “one-man black market in prehistoric fossils,” as one U.S. attorney described him.
Prokopi, who ran his fossil business, Everything Earth, out of his Florida home, has a record of pilfering dinosaur bones from China and Mongolia. The bird fossil, or “micro raptor” as it’s called, was just one of many fossilized skeletons he was charged with illegally importing, some worth millions of dollars.
The relic, discovered by a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service inspector in 2010 at a UPS terminal in Kentucky, was turned over to Russell Hack, a CBP import specialist at the Port of Cleveland. Hack recalls that Prokopi submitted documents stating the fossil was an ornament, a “craft rock” and later claiming it was a fossil replica. He said an evaluator from a local natural history museum concluded it was real. Hack then turned the case over to Homeland Security investigators in Cleveland and New York. Prokopi pleaded guilty to illegally importing dinosaur fossils, served three months in jail, was fined $300 and sentenced to 15 months’ probation.
The raptor fossil was among the pilfered artifacts repatriated Dec. 10 at the Chinese embassy, but an agreement between the two governments will permit the bird to be displayed at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh for a year. China’s ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, hailed it as “another story of China-U.S. cooperation.”
China’s historical wealth is “constantly subjected to looting and international trafficking,” noted Gu Yucai, China’s state administrator of cultural heritage. However, he praised the CBP officers, Homeland Security investigators and prosecutors for their work in returning the cultural treasures. “The U.S. government has demonstrated a responsible attitude for implementing international treaties and honoring bilateral commitments,” said Yucai.
The CBP’s officers and staff involved with the recovery of the artifacts were also recognized at the repatriation ceremony. “We were very well received,” said Officer Fajardo, who along with officers Fernald Brown, Reynaldo Marte and attorney Samuel Brandt, was invited to the event. Dennis McKenzie, representing CBP headquarters, also attended. “The Chinese were very appreciative and made us feel welcome,” said Fajardo.
Brandt, an attorney in CBP’s Office of the Associate Chief Counsel in Miami, coordinated the case with the CBP officers, Homeland Security investigators and the U.S. attorney’s office. The chief counsel’s office provides legal advice in all cultural property cases handled by the agency.
CBP to Use Facial Comparison Technology at John F. Kennedy International Airport
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
Technology will help to verify the identity of those entering the United States
WASHINGTON—In addition to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) existing security procedures, CBP will begin using facial comparison technology today at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to help verify a traveler entering the United States matches the passport presented. The initial deployment will apply to some first-time Visa Waiver Program (VWP) travelers and returning U.S. citizens with ePassports.
“CBP continues to provide innovative technologies to enhance homeland security while facilitating international travel,” said Commissioner R. Gil Kerlikowske. “This biometric capability will aid our officers in identifying legitimate travelers while protecting them from fraud and identity theft with little to no delay to the entry process. CBP continues to implement technologies that benefit both national security and the traveler.”
The technology compares an image of the traveler taken during the normal inspection process to the image stored on the traveler’s ePassport, verifying that the traveler is the rightful document holder. The images taken will be deleted unless CBP determines that further administrative or enforcement actions are necessary. CBP remains committed to protecting the privacy and civil rights and civil liberties of all travelers.
CBP tested facial comparison technology last year at Washington Dulles International Airport. The results of that testing determined the system successfully performed matches against actual passports and live captured images.
CBP first established biometric screening procedures based on digital fingerprints for certain non-U.S. citizens in 2004 to secure our borders and ensure that the foreign travelers presenting themselves for admission to the United States are who they claim to be. CBP is conducting additional tests to evaluate new biometric technologies in multiple environments in FY 2016 to further secure and facilitate legitimate travel in a way that does not disrupt operations.
Since 2007, U.S. passports have had a chip embedded in them that securely stores the same information that’s on the photo page of the passport, which includes a biometric identifier in the form of a digital image of the passport photograph. This facilitates the use of facial comparison technology at ports of entry into the U.S. In order to maintain participation in the Visa Waiver Program, VWP countries also issue ePassports, which contain an electronic chip that holds the same information that is printed on the passport’s data page: the holder’s name, date of birth, and other biographic information, in addition to a digital photograph of the holder.
CBP Officers at Miami's Seaport Seize Counterfeit Hoverboards
U.S. Customs & Border Protection
MIAMI — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers assigned to the Miami Seaport Trade Enforcement Team (TET) seized 235 cartons containing counterfeit hoverboards with an estimated MSRP of $94,000. The self-balancing scooters, commonly referred to as “hoverboards” contained batteries that were deemed unauthorized and therefore counterfeit.
“The men and women of CBP have many important roles. One such role is ensuring that products entering the U.S. are safe,” said Port Director Dylan DeFrancisci. “This is an example of ensuring that a product, potentially making its way to a child, has genuine parts and is safe for use.”.
Hoverboards—self-balancing, two-wheeled, motorized platforms—are some of this year’s most popular items. However, major safety concerns have surfaced following reports of fires possibly caused by substandard and counterfeit lithium ion batteries that power some hoverboards. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has also recently seized counterfeit products at ports in Virginia. CBP is partnering with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) concerning the use of counterfeit and unauthorized batteries in hoverboards.
If you are aware of or suspect a company or individual of infringing your trademark or copyright, please report the trade violation to e-Allegations Online Trade Violation Reporting System or by calling 1-800-BE-ALERT. Consumers may also report incidents to the Consumer Products Safety Commission via SaferProducts.gov.
IPR enforcement is a CBP Priority Trade Issue. Travelers are encouraged to visit CBP’s Travel section to learn rules governing travel to and from the U.S.
The men and women of CBP are responsible for enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws and regulations. On a typical day, CBP welcomes nearly 1 million visitors, screens more than 67,000 cargo containers, arrests more than 1,100 individuals and seizes nearly 6 tons of illicit drugs.
In Florida, CBP facilitates travel and trade and secures over 1,200 miles of the coastal border. Find out more and get real-time updates at @CBPFlorida on Twitter.