CBP Fiscal Year report

Here is the 2007 fiscal year U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency report.
Some highlights:


CBP 2007 Fiscal Year in ReviewTeam
• CBP continued to increase its workforce, hiring 2156 new CBP officers, for a net increase of 648 officers, and 340 agriculture specialists, for a net increase of 151 specialists.
• In fiscal year 2007, CBP increased Border Patrol agent staffing by 21 percent,from 12,349 in FY2006 to 14,923 at the end of FY2007, the largest yearly increase in the history of the Border Patrol.

Between Ports of Entry
• CBP Border Patrol agents improved border security, reducing the number of apprehensions at the borders by 20 percent in fiscal year 2007 compared with fiscal year 2006. Yuma Sector saw a reduction in apprehensions by 68 percent, the Del Rio Sector saw a reduction in apprehensions by 46 percent, and the El Paso Sector saw a reduction in apprehensions by 38 percent.
• CBP exceeded its first major tactical infrastructure milestone by completing 76 miles of primary fence. On September 30, 2007 CBP announced that it not only met its fiscal year 2007 goal to construct 70 miles of primary fence along the Southwest border, but exceeded that goal by 6 miles. On September 30, CBP had a total of 154.7 miles of primary fence along the Southwest border. CBP will deploy an additional 215 miles by the end of calendar year 2008 for a total of 370 miles.
• CBP has made significant progress to implement Project 28, the initial prototype of the SBInet technology solution. The Boeing Company has deployed all 9 re-locatable communication, camera and radar towers in the area of operations in Sasabe, Arizona. All 50 of the Project 28 agent vehicles have been fitted with the Common Operating Picture (COP) hardware and 24 out of the 50 vehicles have the entire COP system to include computers, modems, and satellite phone connections. CBP has completed certification and accreditation testing and anticipates starting the System Verification Test soon.
• CBP officers continued to protect America at the ports of entry. In fiscal year 2007, CBP officers seized more than 820,000 pounds of narcotics, arrested more than 25,000 suspected criminals, interdicted more than 170,000 inadmissible aliens turned away at the port of entry, and conducted 1.5 million agricultural interceptions (meat and plants).
• In 2007, CBP launched the National Agriculture Release Program, an automated program that allows the inspection of high-volume, very-low risk commodities to be expedited. NARP ultimately will allow CBP to divert valuable resources to other high risk agricultural commodities which facilitates trade and enhances customer service.
• In fiscal year 2007, agriculture specialists made 1.57 million agricultural interceptions (meats & plants that are prohibited entry into the U.S.) Through inspection of commodities and seized products, they found nearly 60,000 actionable or reportable plant pest interceptions.
• As part of CBP’s efforts to secure our nation’s ports of entry, CBP expanded the Container Security Initiative (CSI), increasing participating ports to 58 in fiscal year 2007. CSI now covers 86 percent of U.S.-bound maritime containers. In addition, CBP launched the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) to help safeguard global maritime cargo.
• CBP enhanced the Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program through the establishment of minimum-security criteria for brokers, rail carriers, terminal operators, Mexican highway carriers, Mexican Long Haul Carriers, and U.S. and foreign port terminal operators. In addition to adding 41 supply chain security specialists, the program completed 1812 validations and 368 re-validations, which involved 2,819 site visits in 83 foreign countries.
• By the end of fiscal year 2007, CBP deployed 142 new radiation portal monitors throughout the nation’s ports of entry, bringing the number of RPMs to 1023 at the nation’s land and sea ports of entry.
• CBP processed a huge volume of commercial imports exceeding 31.4 million entries and value surpassing $2 trillion. The agency collected $33 billion in revenue.
• Commercial trade enforcement actions continued to take center stage. This year, more than 17,000 trade enforcement seizures valued at $359 million were initiated, including more than 13,600 seizures of goods infringing intellectual property rights (IPR) with a domestic value totaling more than $196 million. Other seizures included textiles and wearing apparel violating quota/visa requirements ($49 million), and seizures for violations of other federal agency laws covering cigarettes, diamonds, game animals and birds, and motorcycles and automobiles. CBP also initiated 449 commercial fraud penalties totaling nearly $220 million.

Fair weather reformer?

From the office of House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, D-Minn. He takes a jab at the Administration's waxing and waning zeal for reform.

Opinion Editorial: Farm Bill Reformers' Fair Weather Friend

As the Farm Bill debate began this year, reformers thought they found an unlikely ally in the Bush Administration, which has argued forcefully against the farm safety net because it allowed big city millionaires to collect farm payments.
What reformers don't know or have conveniently forgotten is that the Bush Administration has failed to use the authority it already has to end those payments and has ignored recommendations to change weak regulations that allow this to continue.
In 1987, Congress passed the Farm Program Payments Integrity Act, specifically to prohibit farm program payments to individuals and entities that are not "actively engaged in farming."
Since that law passed, USDA has written and defended weak standards that are used to determine if someone is really actively engaged in farming. Just one look at the map that former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns used to show farm program payment recipients in New York and other big cities shows you that USDA has done a terrible job enforcing the law.
The 2002 Farm Bill established a Commission on the Application of Payment Limitations for Agriculture. The Commission found that USDA failed to devote sufficient resources to the administration of payment limits and did a poor job of policing related fraud and abuse.
In 2004, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirmed the Commission's finding and concluded that USDA failed to write regulations strict enough to prevent non-farmers from receiving payments. USDA responded to that report by arguing that the rules were sufficient. Now the Administration is blaming Congress for the loose regulations it created and defended.
Yet again, the Bush Administration has failed to lead on important issues, then tried to place the responsibility and blame at Congress' feet.
Not so fast, Mr. President. If you want to wear the banner of reform, you should lead the way instead of pointing fingers and playing politics with the Farm Bill.

House passes free trade deal with Peru

House passage of the U.S.-Peru FTA is a bit of good news for President Bush and his trade agenda. However, a leading legislator raises the food safety question....

Here is reaction from Acting Secretary Agriculture Chuck Conner followed by a statement by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who voted against the deal:

Statement by Acting Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner Regarding Approval of the Peru Trade Promotion Agreement

Nov. 8, 2007
"Passage of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement by the U.S. House of Representatives signals the importance the United States places on free trade in this hemisphere and our support for trade partners that share our economic and societal values.
"Peru is already an important market for America's farmers and ranchers, accounting for $209 million of agricultural sales in 2006. We look forward to recapturing the market share in bulk commodities that we have lost to our competitors and to creating new opportunities for consumer-ready and higher-valued products. Once the agreement is fully implemented, 90 percent of our food and agricultural exports to Peru will enter duty-free and all U.S. exports will eventually enter duty-free. Peru will also benefit from the agreement, which makes permanent Peru's market access to the United States. The agreement also supports trade capacity building in Peru, which will help them to strengthen their participation in the global marketplace.
"This solid bipartisan approval is a very positive step and provides the momentum we need to move our trade agenda forward to other nations in line for trade promotion. I just returned from Colombia with several members of Congress where we saw firsthand the tremendous progress there. Colombia is making impressive strides toward economic stability and the free trade agreement would bolster those efforts. The benefits are clear for both countries. Duties on U.S. exports to Colombia are currently very high and the agreement will immediately eliminate duties on 50 percent of our agricultural goods. All duties would be phased-out over time. This agreement is vitally important not only to level the playing field for our farmers and ranchers, but also to support a country committed to democracy. Colombia is striving to create a safe, economically stable society and this agreement can help to achieve these goals.
"We look forward to working with Congress and the agricultural industry on passage of the free trade agreement with Colombia, as well as the pending agreements with Panama and South Korea."

From the office of Rep. Rosa DeLauro:

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) issued the following statement about her opposition to the United States – Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act (H.R. 3688). DeLauro’s vote against the FTA centered around its affect on food safety, as currently, the Food and Drug Administration has no Memorandum of Understanding or Mutual Recognition Agreement in effect with Peru.

“I am very concerned about the way trade agreements have been negotiated and their negative impact on our food safety system. In my view, this Administration has negotiated ‘Free Trade Agreements’ which would limit inspections and safety requirements for imported foods. They take us in the wrong direction on food safety. The Peru FTA essentially builds on the already weakened food safety framework of the World Trade Organization agreement adopted in 1994, which places limits on the safety standards the United States can require for imported foods.

“Most egregious, is the fact that if our domestic laws extend beyond trade agreements’ limits, these actions can then be challenged before foreign trade tribunals as ‘illegal trade barriers.’ What reason could we have to impede our ability to ensure the safety and reliability of our food supply?

“In the final analysis, the effect of a free trade agreement with any country will be to increase sharply, exports from that country into the United States. When food enters the equation in which we know we currently have virtually no safeguards, increasing those exports will only make the situation worse.

“It is about recognizing that trade should never trump public health – and that government has a responsibility to honor those priorities.”

There is more to the story

I've been busy doing some reporting for The Packer today, but suffice to say there is plenty to consider with the on farm standards put forward by the Food Safety Leadership Council. Stay tuned for reaction from WG and others....

Food Safety Leadership Council

I posted an open question to the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group recently about the buyer led Food Safety Leadership Council. So far, I haven't seen a lot of reaction from the group about the on-farm food safety standards that have been published by the council and distributed to suppliers. One industry spokesman described the document - I'll post it later to the discussion group - as the leafy greens marketing agreement standards "on steroids." My questions, which I also pose to Fresh Talk readers, are these:

Will there be further refinement of the standards? How soon does the group want suppliers to implement the standards? Will buyers in the council buy only from suppliers who conform to document? Thoughts and other issues?

Peruvian onion market look in

Andy Nelson of The Packer provides coverage of the Peruvian onion deal in this story.

From the story:

An overabundance of high-quality sweet onions from Peru has flattened markets, but prices could begin to rebound as early as late November, importers said.

Higher-than-expected acreages in Peru and Ecuador, combined with near-ideal growing weather, produced a glut of product from Peru this fall, said Derrell Kelso Jr., president of Stockton, Calif.-based Onions Etc.