Heaven forbid you get a direct Shipment from Fortnum and Mason
FDA-Approved Gifts (washingtonpost.com)
The Bioterrorism Act requires that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration be given advance notice of food shipments imported to the United States as of Dec. 12, 2003. If you read the letter of the law, all food gifts mailed to the United States are covered, but an FDA spokesman indicated that gifts can be mailed without fear of reprisal.
Domenic J. Veneziano, a spokesman for the agency, said in an e-mail that your situation “falls under a special FDA category of a food that is imported for non-business purposes using a non-commercial shipper.
“In this case, even if the required prior notice information has not been provided, FDA and the CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] typically will not take regulatory action unless they feel that the shipment poses a significant health risk,” he said.
Veneziano also noted, however, that this leeway applies only to food shipped between two individuals. “If instead the gift was purchased at a store and shipped by the store, the prior notice requirements would be enforced even if the item was for personal use,” he said.
This, of course makes no sense and is an obvious attempt to slow down the grey market which bypasses corrupt American distributors who gouge the publiic.
The wine industry, for example, is aware that much of this “protection” is to protect big liquor distributors. If anyone thinks that this is actually protecting the public I suggest you go to the port of Oakland and look at the thousands of containers of foodstuff coming in from China and being shipped by who-knows-who. It’s laughable.
And how does it make sense that you can have your friend Abu-Nidal send you food from overseas, but Fortnum and Mason, in London, cannot send you a jar of jelly? Who are we kidding?
I was told by some customs folks — before the food ban went into effect– to make sure and say “for personal consumption only” when you hand carry a food item into the country. Despite what this article says some agents will confiscate any food brought in if you claim it to be a gift. And do not bring in anything that contains beef.
Of course it’s a load of garbage. There is little, if any, validity in any of legislation passed by the Republikan-controlled Congress having to do with any aspect of terrorism. Whether it’s the Patriot Act or one of the “little” Patriot Acts, like this bio-terrorism fiasco, the Right-Wingers presently on charge of the old Republican Party are doing their opportunistic best to achieve as many reactionary tasks as possible. They’re not about to pass up the best chance they’ve had since the days of McCarthy[ism] to turn the hands of our political clock back to the 19th Century and beyond.
America’s uneducated, ignorant and careless electorate still doesn’t see past this crap. Or so it would seem. Perhaps, the presidential election will provide the opportunity to drag us back to modernism or a sort. Perhaps, it will take longer. Of course, we’ll be further into fiscal ruin by the time a chance at regaining American standards of democracy appears.
Totally agree. Somehow our enforcement agencies are incapable of using common sense. We either go completely overboard and have dogs sniffing bottles of LaTour or are completely negligent and leave containers wide open. I’m reminded of the scene in Airplane where they assault Granny at the metal detector yet let the guys with bazookas through.
If you think it’s bad, at least you’re not in my situation. This FDA prior notice system sucks bad. I have a load of green tea orders that I’ve been trying to get out for the last 48 hours but can’t because the FDA prior notice system hasn’t been working. You have no idea how bad it is. Very slow, very backward.
Personally, I think this was meant to stop the flow of cheap drugs to senior citizens more than terrorism. What is this going to stop? If I go to the 7-11 and send my neices a Japanese candy bar, I’m supposed to get permssion from the FDA first. Can you imagine what commerce will be like when all the other countries implement their own systems to counter the US system? This is the biggest load of garbage I’ve ever seen.