C-AIR TIMES ISSUE #681 - Friday, May 07, 2021 08:25

CBP Puts Petal to the Metal for Mother's Day - U.S. Customs & Border Protection

Agriculture Specialists inspect more than one billion cut flowers, flowering plants

WASHINGTON — U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists are working round the clock to ensure that America’s moms enjoy a pest-free Mother’s Day on May 9.

Mother’s Day is the busiest time of year for flower imports, which can carry pests and diseases that threaten U.S. agriculture and the environment. This year, CBP agriculture specialists have inspected more than one billion cut flower stems bound for stores and households throughout the United States. As a result of those inspections, CBP interdicted 1,977 pests.

“No one wants to give mom a bouquet teeming with insects or diseases that can wreak havoc on the environment,” said Kevin C. Harriger, Executive Director of CBP’s Agriculture Programs and Trade Liaison. “CBP agriculture specialists are on the frontline ensuring that cut flowers, hanging baskets, and other plant imports are pest-free and presentation ready for Mother’s Day.”

CBP agriculture specialists physically inspect all flowers and plant materials before they enter the United States to ensure that they are free of pests and diseases. The inspections include shaking the flowers to dislodge insects and the use of magnifying glasses to locate pests and diseases. CBP sends interdicted pests and diseases to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which uses digital imagery and other technology to confirm their identity.

According to CBP data, solidago (goldenrods), alstroemeria (Peruvian lily), and chrysanthemum (florist’s daisy) are the flower species most often interdicted for carrying pests. Among other critters, cut flower imports may transport Noctuidae and Aphididae, colloquially known as the owlet moth and aphids, which can cause irreparable damage to the environment if allowed into the country. Infested shipments must be treated, re-exported or destroyed, depending on the severity of the infestation.

Cut flowers are normally imported in bulk, mostly from countries in South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. The top exporting countries are Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Guatemala. More than 95 percent of U.S.-bound cut flower imports are processed in Miami, New York, and Otay Mesa, California. The most common flower types are roses, mixed bouquets, and pom pom chrysanthemums.

In addition to cut flowers, CBP processes a large volume of flowering plants during the Mother’s Day season. Many of these plants are imported from greenhouses in Canada and processed at ports of entry including Alexandria Bay, Buffalo, and Champlain, New York.

During a typical day last year, CBP’s highly trained agriculture specialists seized 3,091 prohibited plant, meat, animal byproducts, and soil, and intercepted 250 insect pests at U.S. ports of entry. Learn more about what CBP accomplished during “A Typical Day” in 2020.

B-roll of CBP cut flower inspections is available here. Photographs of CBP cut flower inspections are available here.

Federal Register Notices:

05/04/2021 – March 2021 Textile and Apparel Import Report

In the News:

UK and India step closer to trade deal, agreeing investment and migration pacts - [Reuters]
U.S. trade deficit surges to record; shortfall with China keeps rising - [CNBC]
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai says she expects to meet Chinese counterpart Liu He ‘in the near term’ - [South China Morning Post]
This Mother’s Day – Be Alert for Counterfeit Goods Sold Online - U.S. Customs & Border Protection

LOS ANGELES — U.S. Customs and Border Protection is reminding consumers to be alert for counterfeit goods while shopping for Mother’s Day on May 9. Illicit manufacturers continue to exploit the rapid growth of e-commerce to sell counterfeit goods to unsuspecting consumers in the United States. In Fiscal Year 2020, CBP seized more than 26,500 shipments nationwide containing counterfeit goods that would have been worth nearly $1.3 billion had they been genuine.

“Counterfeit products pose criminal, financial, and consumer safety risks for the United States and its citizens,” said Carlos C. Martel CBP Director of Field Operations in Los Angeles. “The purchase of counterfeit goods often supports the funding of criminal enterprises and activity, such as money laundering, smuggling, and trafficking in illegal guns and drugs.”

CBP personnel intercept counterfeit goods bound for consumers and marketplaces throughout the United States every day. Recent CBP seizures include:

$366,000 of counterfeit designer perfumes at the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach. Counterfeit perfumes and cosmetics can contain harmful chemicals.
$4.26 million of counterfeit jewelry in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Nearly $636,000 of counterfeit designer handbags, jewelry, and accessories at the International Mail Facility in Chicago, Illinois.
More than 500 counterfeit iPhones bound for Miami, Florida. Counterfeit electronics can pose serious fire hazards to consumers.

CBP data indicates that handbags, wallets, wearing apparel, footwear, watches, jewelry, and consumer electronics are at higher risk of being counterfeited. Counterfeit versions of popular brands are regularly sold in online marketplaces and flea markets.

In addition to posing potential health and safety hazards, counterfeit goods are often of inferior quality. Peeling labels, low-quality ink or printing errors on the packaging, and loosely packed items in the box can be signs that the product you purchased may not be legitimate. Counterfeit apparel and handbags may feature poor or uneven stitching and improperly sized or designed logos. The performance of counterfeit electronics is often marked by short battery life and regular overheating.

Consumers can take simple steps to protect themselves and their families from counterfeit goods:

Purchase goods directly from the trademark holder or from authorized retailers.
When shopping online, read seller reviews and check for a working U.S. phone number and an address that can be used to contact the seller.
Review CBP’s E-Commerce Counterfeit Awareness Guide for Consumers.
Remember that if the price of a product seems too good to be true, it probably is.

To report suspected counterfeits, visit CBP’s online e-Allegations portal or call 1-800-BE-ALERT. More information about counterfeit goods is available on CBP’s Fake Goods, Real Dangers website and StopFakes.gov.

Agriculture Specialists in Louisville Are Seeing an Increase in Dangerous Prohibited Agriculture Shipments - U.S. Customs & Border Protection

LOUISVILLE, Ky — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers in Louisville sometimes call for reinforcements when a parcel’s contents could pose a threat to agriculture and related industries. CBP’s Agriculture Specialists in Louisville have been busy this spring experiencing a large increase in items that cause a threat to farming communities.

One of the most common items seized by these specialists is live plants and seeds for planting. Most of the shipments come from China and are prohibited under the Plant Protection Act (PPA)because they lack the required permits and certificates. Live plants and seeds are high risk for plant pests, including insects, diseases, and weeds. The live insect shipments Agriculture Specialist have encountered are also regulated under the PPA and by U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

Additionally, a lot of animal products have been seized. These items are prohibited entry because they carry livestock diseases. One such seizure was declared as “plastic samples” but was foil bags of duck tongues, a delicacy in China. Other items commonly seized are live eggs for hatching. These are prohibited because hatching eggs can carry Newcastle disease and Avian Influenza.

And the shippers of these items’ mis-manifest or hide their contraband in their packages: insect eggs smuggled inside stuffed animals, pears from Korea, manifested as Hair Band, and strawberries from China, manifested as Ladies Sweater pose a risk of various plant pests, including Oriental Fruit Fly.

In comparison the Port of Louisville is #1 in the nation for the number of Emergency Action Notifications (EANs) documentation issued during the first half of fiscal year 2021. Louisville has issued 6,256 EANs, which is a 186% increase compared to their totals for the first half of fiscal year 2020.

“Live plants can harbor pests and diseases that, if introduced into our agriculture systems or natural resources, could cause significant damage to our food supply or native species,” said Thomas Mahn, Port Director-Louisville. “Our agriculture specialists are dedicated to protecting these essential American resources from foreign pests and diseases.”

During a typical day last year, CBP agriculture specialists across the nation seized 3,091 prohibited plant, meat, animal byproducts, and soil, and intercepted 250 insect pests at U.S. ports of entry. Learn more about what CBP accomplished during “A Typical Day” in 2020.

CBP conducts operations at ports of entry throughout the United States, and regularly screens arriving international passengers and cargo for narcotics, weapons, and other restricted or prohibited products. CBP strives to serve as the premier law enforcement agency enhancing the Nation’s safety, security, and prosperity through collaboration, innovation, and integration.

CBP Cleveland Seizes Top Glove Products Under Forced Labor Finding - U.S. Customs & Border Protection

CLEVELAND —U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel in Cleveland seized a shipment of 3.97 million nitrile disposable gloves due to information indicating they were made by forced labor, a form of modern slavery.

On March 29, CBP directed personnel at all U.S. ports of entry to begin seizing disposable gloves produced in Malaysia by Top Glove Corporation Bhd. (Top Glove). The shipment in Cleveland was seized after an inspection by CBP officers revealed that the gloves were produced in Malaysia by a subsidiary of Top Glove. The estimated value of the shipment was $518,000.

“This seizure sends a strong message that CBP will not tolerate imports made by forced labor, which is a form of modern slavery that hurts vulnerable workers and threatens our economy,” said Diann Rodriguez, Area Port Director-Cleveland. “CBP continues to facilitate the importation of legitimate PPE needed for the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring that the PPE is authorized and safe for use.”

CBP issued a forced labor finding on March 29 based on evidence of multiple forced labor indicators in Top Glove’s production process, including debt bondage, excessive overtime, abusive working and living conditions, and retention of identity documents.

Federal statute 19 U.S.C. 1307 prohibits the importation of merchandise mined, manufactured, or produced, wholly or in part, by convict labor, forced labor, and/or indentured labor, including forced or indentured child labor. CBP will seize shipments subject to findings unless the importer can prove to CBP’s satisfaction that, per 19 C.F.R §12.43, the merchandise was not produced with forced labor.

CBP receives allegations of forced labor from a variety of sources, including from the public. Any person or organization that has reason to believe merchandise produced with the use of forced labor is being – or is likely to be – imported into the United States can report detailed allegations by contacting CBP through the e-Allegations Online Trade Violation Reporting System or by calling 1-800-BE-ALERT.

United States Remains World's Largest Services Exporter and Importer in 2019, Reports USITC - U.S. International Trade Commission

The United States is the world's largest services market and was the world’s leading exporter and importer of services in 2019, reports the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) in its new publication Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2021 Annual Report.

The USITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, compiles the report annually. Each year's report presents a qualitative and quantitative overview of U.S. trade in services and highlights some of the services sectors and geographic markets that contribute substantially to recent services trade performance.

This year’s report focuses on professional services and includes sections detailing trends in six specific industries: research and development services, legal services, management consulting services, education services, architecture and engineering services, and healthcare services. Each section analyzes global market conditions in the industry and summarizes the industry’s outlook.

The report describes trade in services via cross-border transactions through 2019 and via affiliate sales through 2018 (latest available data). Highlights include:

The services sector represents the largest sector of the U.S. economy, and the United States is the world’s top cross-border exporter and importer of services. In 2019, U.S. exports of private services totaled $853.3 billion, whereas imports totaled $564.3 billion.
Within the services sector, sales by foreign affiliates of U.S. firms – the leading channel by which many U.S. services are delivered to foreign markets – totaled $1.7 trillion in 2018 while the value of services purchased from foreign-owned affiliates in the United States totaled $1.2 trillion.
The professional services sector includes a variety of activities that generally require highly skilled labor and, in many cases, specific licenses or credentials are required to provide the services. Professional services accounted for 34 percent of total cross-border services exports and 25 percent of imports in 2019. They represented 15 percent of total sales by the foreign affiliates of U.S. firms and 15 percent of total purchases from the U.S. affiliates of foreign firms.
In recent years, some professional service sectors have changed the way their services are provided, whether by introducing new business models and suppliers or by shifting from providing services in person to providing them online. In particular:
- legal services - alternative legal service providers (ALSPs), a diverse group of companies including legal process outsourcing firms (LPOs) and the Big Four accounting firms, have outpaced the growth of traditional law firms;
- management consulting (MC) - an evolving trend towards the digital supply of MC services preceded the COVID-19 pandemic, but COVID-19 travel restrictions have hastened this trend, and MC providers now mostly supply services remotely;
- education - the volume of university-level foreign students studying in the United States has experienced systemic declines, which were further aggravated by COVID-19 in 2020.
For other professional services sectors, changing consumer preferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic have driven recent developments, including:
- architecture and engineering - COVID-19 has created strong demand for project design in essential business segments, such as hospitals, water management, and pharmaceutical manufacturing, and for pandemic-related redesign services for medical, home, education, and office space;
- heathcare - the adoption of telemedicine in the United States has accelerated since March 2020, as the share of U.S. consumers who have used telemedicine went up by 35 percent in 2020 from 11 percent in 2019.

The USITC hosted its 14th annual services roundtable, which was held virtually for the first time on October 27, 2020. The discussion, summarized in the report, focused on the impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic on demand, output, modes of supply, business practices, labor, and productivity in U.S. and global services industries, and the impact of establishing a presence in one or more foreign markets on U.S. services firms’ operations and overall employment in the United States.

Recent Trends in U.S. Services Trade, 2021 Annual Report (Investigation No. 332-345, USITC publication 5129, April 2021) is available on the USITC's Internet site at
https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub5192.pdf.