USDA Farm Security Plan Calls for Increased Enforcement on Customs Brokers
The federal government is looking to increase enforcement on “logistics providers, customs brokers, and other trade intermediaries” that are responsible for importing “dangerous biochemicals and biological agents,” USDA and other agencies said in a National Farm Security Action Plan released July 8.
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The plan also says USDA will “review and modernize import restrictions to prevent the spread” of such chemicals and agents. It said the agency will “work with other federal partners, including CBP, “to strengthen our nation’s borders against entry of restricted goods that could carry animal disease, plant pests, and biological pathogens that can be weaponized against the American public."
The action plan, jointly issued by USDA, DHS, DOJ and the Defense Department, “comprises the next pillar” of the USDA “Make Agriculture Great Again initiative, which seeks to protect our borders, enhances the farm safety net and domestic agricultural production, and improves outcomes for American consumers,” it said.
U.S. reliance on imports for food security “can threaten our domestic security and independence,” the plan said. ”By analyzing and identifying supply chain gaps and other security vulnerabilities, USDA can help refocus domestic investment into key manufacturing sectors and identify non-adversarial partners to work with when domestic production is not available.”
“Countries around the world” have attacked agriculture supply chains, including by importing illicit food products, creating unfair trade practices and smuggling potential bioterrorism agents, “in turn transforming our nation’s growing reliance on key foreign food and agricultural inputs into an urgent strategic vulnerability,” the plan said.
For example, “American forces in Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks uncovered documents involving U.S. agriculture along with al-Qaeda training manuals specifically targeting agriculture,” the plan said. More recently, DOJ charged “foreign nationals, including a Chinese Communist Party member, with smuggling a noxious fungus into the United States -- a potential agroterrorism weapon responsible for billions in global crop losses,” the news release announcing the plan said.