|
Local Agreements in New York/New Jersey and Elsewhere Next Big Hurdle To Achieve Successful Contract Agreement With ILA Employers; Master and Local Contract Also Must Be Ratified By ILA Workers
International Longshoremen's Association / http://www.ilaunion.org/news_Local%20Agreements.html
NORTH BERGEN, N.J. - When Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Director George H. Cohen announced that the ILA and USMX reached a tentative agreement for a successor Master Agreement late Friday night, he did note that two important tasks remained before a new contract takes effect. One was that local agreements still needed to be successfully negotiated and the other was that any tentative agreement "is subject to the ratification of both parties."
"I know ILA members will be satisfied with the results of our negotiating efforts thus far," said ILA President Harold J. Daggett. "Although the two sides cannot release complete details of this still unfinished contract, I can assure my membership that the protections for our jurisdiction and increased benefits and wages were achieved.
"We have come away from these Master Contract negotiations with landmark agreements on automation, protection of chassis work and powerful jurisdiction language," President Daggett continued. "Our work last week continued this negotiating successes."
The ILA leader knows his membership is anxious to hear details of the tentative Master Contract agreement, but will wait until the full contract package - both Master and Local agreements - are available for ILA members to review and approve.
Local negotiations are still ongoing and will continue without interruption to any port area.
"We turn our full attention now to achieving equally successful local contract agreements," President Daggett said. "And we look forward to our members expressing their voice in the ratification process of the full contract package."
CBP Inspects Valentine Flowers for Harmful Bugs
U.S. Customs & Border Protection / http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/national/02062013.xml
Washington D.C. — Each year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists inspect millions of cut flower imports during the Valentine season because some of these flowers may carry hitchhiking pests and diseases that could harm the U.S. flower industry.
“Agriculture inspections are a crucial part of the inspection process for items entering into the country,” said Kevin Harriger, executive director for the CBP Agriculture Programs Trade and Liaison office. “CBP works to identify a relatively small number of harmful hitchhiking pests amongst the millions of stems entering the country because even a single dangerous pest could cause millions of dollars of damage to our nation’s crops.”
One of the most serious diseases that can be introduced via imported flowers is chrysanthemum white rust. If established in the U.S., the disease could decimate the U.S. chrysanthemum industry. Other agricultural pests and diseases capable of destroying our nation’s crops or forests include the Emerald ash borer, the Asian long-horned beetle, citrus canker and the Khapra beetle.
During the 2012 Valentine’s season from Jan. 1 to Feb. 14, CBP processed 842.2 million cut flower stems. Most of the cut flower shipments are imported from South America, primarily Colombia, with 536.1 million stems or 67 percent, followed by Ecuador with 194 million stems or 23 percent.
Miami ranks first among U.S. ports of entry for shipments of cut flower imports, followed by Los Angeles. The quantity of imported cut flowers processed by both ports during the 2012 Valentine’s season increased 5.7 percent compared to the 2011 season.
During the 2012 Valentine’s season:
- CBP in Miami processed approximately 716.7 million stems or 85.1 percent of the total imported cut flowers nationally.
- Approximately 516 million of cut flower stems imported from Colombia were processed in Miami, where the top cut flower imports are roses, mixed bouquets, and dianthus.
- The imported cut flowers inspection process resulted in a total of 2,439 pest interceptions nationally. Miami intercepted 1,394 pests, followed by Los Angeles with 371 pests.
- 838 pests (34.4 percent) were intercepted from Colombia and 903 (37 percent) were intercepted from Ecuador.
- The most common type of insects intercepted in these cut flower imports are Tetranychus sp. (mites), Aphididae (Aphids), Agromyzidae (Miner Flies) and Noctuidae (moths).
The top 10 ports of entry, by volume (number of stems), that processed shipments of cut flower imports for the 2012 Valentine’s season are:
Location Quantity in Stems
FL Miami Air Cargo CBP 716,735,319
CA Los Angeles CBP 35,011,039
CA Otay Mesa CBP 19,449,954
NY JFK Air Cargo CBP 19,444,566
TX Laredo CBP Colombia 18,618,113
IL Chicago CBP 6,201,306
MA Boston CBP 3,587,766
PR San Juan Air CBP 3,306,025
TX Laredo CBP 3,114,610
PR Aguadilla CBP 1,794,641
Media who wish to visit one of these top 10 ports for flower imports, please contact the press officer assigned to that area.
Treasury Announces Sanctions Against Iran
U.S. Department of Treasury / www.treasury.gov
New Measures Further Constrain Iranian Oil Revenues and Target Those Responsible for Iran’s Human Rights Abuses
WASHINGTON – The United States is taking a number of actions today that tighten sanctions on Iran’s access to its oil revenues and further expose the Iranian government’s continued abuse of human rights. Key provisions of the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act of 2012 (TRA) that go into effect today, expand the scope of sanctionable transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and designated Iranian financial institutions by restricting Iran’s ability to use oil revenue hel d in foreign financial institutions as well as preventing repatriation of those funds to Iran. The U.S. Department of the Treasury, in consultation with the U.S. Department of State, also designated one individual and four entities for their involvement in the Iranian government’s censorship activities. These censorship activities restrict the free flow of information in Iran and punish Iranian citizens who are attempting to exercise freedom of assembly and expression.
“Our policy is clear – so long as Iran continues to fail to address the concerns of the international community about its nuclear program, the U.S. will impose tighter sanctions and intensify the economic pressure against the Iranian regime,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “We will also target those in Iran who are responsible for human right abuses, especially those who deny the Iranian people their basic freedoms of expression, assembly and speech.”
Today marks 180 days since the President signed the TRA. Section 504 of the TRA amends existing sanctions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (NDAA) that target the Central Bank of Iran, designated Iranian financial institutions and Iran’s energy sector. At the 180-day mark, section 504 narrows the exception for countries that have significantly reduced their purchases of Iranian crude oil so that the exception now only applies to financial transactions that facilitate bilateral trade between the country granted the exception and Iran. For the exception to apply to a financial transaction, funds owed to Iran as a result of such bilateral trade will now have to be credited to an account located in the country granted the exception and may not be repatriated to Iran.
This provision will significantly increase economic pressure on Iran by restricting Iran’s repatriation of oil revenue. In addition to effectively “locking up” Iranian oil revenue overseas, this provision sharply restricts Iran’s use of this revenue for bilateral trade and severely limits Iran’s ability to move funds across jurisdictions.
Humanitarian Exceptions
The increased restrictions, however, do not apply to the sale of agricultural commodities, food, medicine, or medical devices to Iran. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing guidance today to make it clear that such humanitarian trade with Iran is neither subject to these sanctions nor to sanctions previously imposed on Iran.
Sanctions Linked to Censorship in Iran
In addition to increasing economic pressure on Iran, the Treasury Department, in consultation with the State Department, designated the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting and its director, as well as three other entities in Iran, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13628, which implements the TRA by giving the Treasury Department the authority to designate those in Iran who restrict or deny the free flow of information to or from the Iranian people.
Any property or interests in property in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons in which the designated entities or individuals have an interest are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them.
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and Ezzatollah Zarghami
IRIB was established as the main governmental agency in charge of the broadcasting policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran and is responsible for producing numerous national and international television and radio channels. Ezzatollah Zarghami is the director and head of IRIB. He was appointed as the Director in May 2004, and reappointed in November 2009. Since his reappointment, Zarghami has pursued a policy of modernization in form but restriction in content.
According to human rights groups, Iran is using state-media transmissions to trample dissent. They point to distorted or false IRIB news reports and the broadcasting of forced confessions of political detainees, such as one involving Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari, who was forced to give a false confession in front of state media outlets while jailed in 2009. In March 2012, the European Union placed individual sanctions on Zarghami for authorizing, as head of IRIB, the broadcast in Au gust 2009 and December 2011 of forced confessions of detainees and “show trials” that constituted a clear violation of international provisions on fair trial and the right to due process. Additionally, Iran is engaged in a campaign to filter out unwanted TV content and broadcast its own propaganda.
After the 2009 presidential election in Iran, jamming of foreign channels, particularly the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Voice of America (VOA), increased in intensity. Then, in the wake of the Arab Spring movements, Iran increased its jamming of the BBC, VOA, and other Western networks with Persian-language news channels. The move was intended to prevent Iranian audiences from seeing foreign broadcasts that the Iranian government found objectionable. Zarghami has adm itted using such tactics, according to Iranian state media reports.
Iranian Cyber Police
The Iranian Cyber Police was formed in 2009, and has worked with other Iranian cyber units to filter websites, monitor Internet behavior, and hack email accounts related to political action on the Internet. The Iranian Cyber Police has made arrangements to increase filtering on Facebook and block content on social networking websites that the Iranian government finds objectionable. On December 22, 2011, the Law Enforcement Forces of Iran publically announced that the Iranian Cyber Police was monitoring all suspicious Internet activity, emails, and text messages. The Iranian Cyber Police published a detailed list of rules and regulations corresponding to its increased monitoring and scrutiny of the Internet. In 2012, the Iranian Cyber Police ordered the deletion of Iranian blogs and brought charges against some people connected with the blogs. On October 30, 2012, the Iranian Cyber Police arrested blogger Sattar Beheshti, reportedly for anti-government comments he posted online. Beheshti, who was kept in detention without a warrant, died in custody in early November, allegedly during interrogation.
Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA)
The CRA enforces Iranian government requirements to filter Internet content. The CRA has implemented Iranian government-mandated lawful intercept requirements for Iranian telecommunications companies. Following post-election unrest on June 13, 2009, the CRA ordered hundreds of websites blocked for nearly a week. Additionally, in early June 2009, the CRA ordered the blockage of hundreds of public Internet websites in anticipation of the June 12 presidential election in Iran. T his large-scale effort was focused on blocking access to English and Farsi versions of foreign news agencies, social networking sites, blogs, and other such public forums.
Iran Electronics Industries (IEI)
IEI was previously designated pursuant to E.O. 13382 in September 2008, for its connections to Iran’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program and Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). According to its website, IEI is a major producer of electronic systems and products in Iran. IEI offers a number of goods and services related to jamming, monitoring, and eavesdropping.< /p>
Satellite jamming is a pervasive reality in Iran. It is used to censor free speech and prohibit access to information through deliberate interference for the express purpose of preventing access to specific content. Orbital and terrestrial jamming is frequently used in Iran to prevent access to specific news and information broadcast from abroad. Jamming devices are radio frequency transmitters that intentionally block, jam, or interfere with communications such as cell phone calls , text messages, GPS systems, and Wi-Fi networks.
As of 2011, the Iranian government has been able to monitor text-messaging services via a monitoring system installed by IEI.
In the context of their use by the Government of Iran, monitoring and eavesdropping form an integral part of the Iranian regime’s effort to control and limit content and suppress speech. Iran is investing in improving its technical capacity to extensively monitor the behavior of its citizens on the Internet. The Iranian authorities routinely use surveillance to round up and interrogate political activists. The government’s use of sophisticated monitoring technology, including t hat which targets text messages, has helped the Iranian authorities crush activism in Iran.
Further
CBP Provides Super Bowl XLVII Security
U.S. Customs & Border Protection / http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/cbp_sbxlvii_security.xml
When the San Francisco 49ers faced the Baltimore Ravens, fans in the New Orleans Mercedes-Benz Superdome probably did not realize the level of security that covered them long before they made their way into the stadium. They may have been unaware of the nearly invisible protected air space that blanketed the venue hours before the kick-off and well after they left the stadium.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) once again was part of the super security team supporting New Orleans in their efforts to host a safe and secure Super Bowl XLVII experience. As part of the team, CBP brings its operational experience and assets to support their federal, state and local law enforcement partners, the National Football League (NFL) and the community.
One important role is the non-intrusive inspections of trucks, cargo, and other conveyances conducted by CBP officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents prior to entering the Superdome. These screenings began January 25 and continued to just prior to kick-off on game day. The importance of these types of screenings as well as CBP’s participation in the National Security Special Event was described as three-fold by CBP Lead Field Coordinator Robert Gomez.
“We are serving as a deterrent to those who are considering smuggling contraband into the Super Dome by screening every vehicle using our non-intrusive inspection capabilities. We are prepared to take enforcement actions as needed and most important; we are integral to the overall security essential to provide a safe and secure Super Bowl XLVII experience. CBP Office of Air Marine air assets are assisting with securing the Temporary Flight Restricted zone, and supporting our law enforcement partners,” Gomez said.
Finally, CBP partnerships with all law enforcement elements and the NFL permits sound decisions to be made in sorting threats both real and nuisance.
“This city has been through many events including hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Isaac and the catastrophic oil spill,” Gomez said. “We’ve seen a lot, we’ve been through a lot together and we’re stronger because of it. All of the men and women working security for Super Bowl XLVII have earned the highest respect and admiration of the community and visiting fans.”
Baltimore CBP Intercepts First in Port Tomato Thrip
U.S. Customs & Border Protection / http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/news_releases/local/02052013_5.xml
Baltimore – A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) entomologist confirmed Friday that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agriculture specialists at Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport discovered a new pest in the Baltimore area when they intercepted, Ceratothripoides brunneus Bagnall, or tomato thrip, while inspecting leaves found inside of a travelers luggage on July 26, 2012.
Tomato thrips could pose a significant agriculture threat because they feed by piercing the tissue of leaves, buds, flowers, and fruit, delaying fruit development or damaging its quality. In the process of feeding, this pest may also transfer viruses or bacteria to the plant causing indirect damage.
“CBP agriculture specialists take their job of detecting foreign invasive plants and plant pests very seriously,” said Ricardo Scheller port director for the Port of Baltimore. “This is another example of our agriculture specialist performing a thorough inspection and finding a new potential threat to the U.S. agriculture industry.”
The thrips were discovered on leaves being carried by a passenger from Jamaica. CBP seized the contaminated leaves and forwarded specimens of the insects to a USDA- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) - Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) entomologist for identification. The remaining leaves were then destroyed by incineration.
CBP agriculture specialists work closely with USDA, APHIS, PPQ to protect our nation’s agriculture resources against the introduction of foreign plant pests and animal diseases.
CBP agriculture specialists have extensive training and experience in the biological sciences and agricultural inspection. On a typical day, they inspect tens of thousands of international air passengers, and air and sea cargoes nationally being imported to the United States and seize 4,919 prohibited meat, plant materials or animal products, incl uding 476 insect pests.
USITC Will Conduct Full Five-Year (Sunset) Reviews Concerning Hot-Rolled Steel Products from China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Ukraine
United States International Trade Commission / http://www.usitc.gov/press_room/news_release/2013/er0204ll1.htm
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC or Commission) has voted to conduct full five-year ("sunset") reviews concerning the countervailing duty orders on hot-rolled steel products from India, Indonesia, and Thailand and the antidumping duty orders on hot-rolled steel products from China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Ukraine (Inv. Nos. 701-TA-405, 406, & 408 and 731-TA-899-901 & 906-908 (Second Review)).
As a result of these votes, the Commission will conduct full reviews to determine whether revocation of these orders would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.
The Uruguay Round Agreements Act requires the Department of Commerce to revoke an antidumping or countervailing duty order, or terminate a suspension agreement, after five years unless the Department of Commerce and the USITC determine that revoking the order or terminating the suspension agreement would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping or subsidies (Commerce) and of material injury (USITC) within a reasonably foreseeable time.
The Commission's notice of institution in five-year reviews requests that interested parties file with the Commission responses that discuss the likely effects of revoking the order under review and provide other pertinent information. Generally within 95 days from institution, the Commission will determine whether the responses it has received reflect an adequate or inadequate level of interest in a full review. If responses to the USITC's notice of institution are adequate, or if other circumstances warrant a full review, the Commission conducts a full review, which includes a public hearing and issuance of questionnaires.
With regard to imports from Taiwan and Thailand, all six Commissioners concluded that both the domestic group responses and the respondent group responses were adequate and voted for full reviews.
With regard to imports from China, India, Indonesia, and Ukraine, all six Commissioners concluded that the domestic group responses were adequate and that the respondent group responses were inadequate, but that circumstances warranted full reviews.
A record of the Commission's votes on these matters is available from the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Requests may be made by telephone by calling 202-205-1802.
The record of the Commission's votes is also posted on the USITC's Internet site at http://pubapps2.usitc.gov/sunset/caseProf/list?sort=caseTitle&order=asc. From this page, search on "hot-rolled steel" using the search box in the upper right corner.
The Federal Register notice will indicate whether any further information or statements will be available. The Commission will issue a report after it completes its reviews.
|