The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, visited Miami this week to observe U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) trade and agriculture operations and reaffirm USDA OIG’s commitment to combating agricultural trade fraud.
Walk visited PortMiami, CBP’s Miami Air Cargo operations and courier facilities, and the Miami International Mail Facility as part of the ongoing effort to combat agricultural trade fraud that enables smuggling, counterfeit labeling, false certifications, and evasion of import obligations involving agricultural goods.
“Agricultural trade fraud is an extremely serious problem that threatens America’s food safety, national security, and U.S. agricultural producers and consumers that OIG will firmly combat so that foreign products imported by fraud do not harm American national interests,” Walk said.
OIG recently participated in an investigation related to smuggling 6,500 pounds of prohibited agricultural products from China that ended up in America’s food system – the products were falsely labeled to evade detection. A separate investigation involved smuggling of biomaterial from China that scientists classify as a potential weapon of agroterrorism into the Midwest.
CBP discussed other instances of transit of agricultural goods by U.S. researchers at American academic institutions with known ties to researchers in adversarial nations.
Source : oversight.gov