David Cottam of Sunrise Commodities was elected chairman of AFI at the general membership meeting held March 27 during the AFI Annual Convention, held this year at the Hilton Clearwater Beach in Clearwater Beach, Fla.

The following were also elected to serve one-year terms:

First Vice Chair
Vincent Arguimbau, Arguimbau & Co.

The following were elected to serve three-year terms on the AFI Board of Directors:

Joe Christovao, Mercantum
George Powell, Great Lakes Trading
Robert Feuerstein, Rema Foods

Additionally, Jim Libby of Finck-Jones-Libby was elected to fill a vacant one-year term.

PROCESSED FOODS, NUT & AG SECTIONS
ELECT OFFICERS

During the annual meeting of the Processed Foods Section, the following were re-elected to serve one-year terms:

Chairman
Erik Johansen, Dana Imports

During the annual meeting of the Nut & Agricultural Products Section, the following were re-elected to one-year terms:

Chairman
Stephen O’Mara, J. F. Braun & Sons

Newly-elected Chairman David Cottam presented to Barbara Harloe of World Finer Foods a plaque recognizing Barbara’s many years of service to AFI, particularly her work for the past two years as AFI chair.

AFI had a booth at the recently held SIAL Montreal trade show. AFI also hosted a reception after the second day of the show. During the three-day show, AFI President Bob Bauer spoke with many attendees, other exhibitors and members of the trade press about the work of AFI and its sections.

Many thanks to Banu Sinar of Setton International Foods and Helena Dane of Taormina Sales for volunteering to spend some of their time while at the show to work in the AFI booth.

— PRESIDENT’S REPORT —

We’re entering a critical period with regard to “food safety” legislative proposals. I put the words “food safety” in quotes because although those words are typically included in the titles of bills as they’re introduced, they don’t effectively address food safety issues. But that’s for another day.

It’s important members look even more closely at e-mails they receive from AFI over the next few weeks to learn not only about the proposed bills but whether action by AFI members is needed. There could be instances in which there is very little time to act, so a quick response from the membership will be needed.

The bill receiving the most attention these days is the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2008 a discussion draft being circulated by John Dingell, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The bill includes several problematic provisions, including annual registration fees for companies importing or exporting food products to the U.S., import restrictions, country of origin labeling and stiffer penalties. A summary of this bill was sent to all members in late April. Thanks to the many members who’ve already given input. Anyone else with input on specific portions of the bill should send their comments to info@afius.org.

Members importing seafood should be aware that the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved April 24 a bill that would impose a number of new requirements in an effort to ensure the safety of imported seafood. For example, the Commerce Department and FDA would be required to work more closely on examining and testing seafood imports, inspecting foreign seafood facilities and tracking seafood shipments within the U.S. The bill would also give the FDA the authority to prohibit the entry of seafood or seafood products that it believes are unlikely to meet federal requirements.

— TRADE NEWS —

FARM BILL INCLUDES
CHILD LABOR PROVISION

The Food and Energy Security Act (H.R. 2419), passed by the Senate, includes a provision that would require the departments of Agriculture and Labor to jointly develop a standard set of practices for the production of agricultural commodities that are imported, sold or marketed in the U.S. in order to reduce the likelihood that those goods are produced with forced or child labor. The requirements of the bill include:

The USDA to issue within three years a proposed rule establishing a voluntary certification program to enforce these practices by:

2008 PRIORITY TRADE
ISSUES ANNOUNCED

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced its priority trade issues for 2008:

AD/CV Duties: CBP has elevated the antidumping/countervailing program to Priority Trade Issue (PTI) status to ensure that a concerted, systematic approach is implemented to facilitate legitimate trade, detect and deter circumvention of AD/CV duties and timely liquidate transactions with correct determinations regarding final duties owed. CBP will utilize a risk-based approach to identify and address violations and circumvention schemes and will promote the use of traditional as well as innovative mechanisms to address noncompliance and revenue collection issues.

Penalties: The goal of CBP’s penalties trade strategy is to improve the effectiveness of the trade fraud penalty process by emphasizing national direction, uniformity and swift action; applying trade compliance alternatives to traditional commercial fraud penalties and focusing trade fraud resources on PTIs. The trade fraud penalty process is a PTI because considerable CBP resources are expended to achieve modest penalty collections and a penalty is often the only tool available to CBP to deter non-compliance in the trade environment. For the purposes of this strategy, trade fraud is defined as any entry or importation by way of false acts, information or omissions, including in entry documentation.

Import Safety: CBP will focus on protecting the public health and safety from unsafe importations through more refined risk analysis, further developments in the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), enhanced targeting and tracking, improved interagency and intra-agency communication and coordination and continued partnerships with the trade community.

Agriculture. CBP’s agriculture trade strategy is designed to detect and prevent agro-terrorism and bio-terrorism; i.e., the intentional contamination of agricultural products or foods or the intentional introduction of diseases or pests intended to cause harm to the American public, American agriculture or the U.S. economy. This PTI strategy will include the risk assessment and prevention of biological, chemical and radiological methods of contaminating the food supply or agricultural products. Its mission also includes protecting the food supply from the unintentional introduction of harmful plant and animal pests and diseases and adulterated, contaminated or unsafe agricultural and food products.

CBP also included revenue and textiles in its 2008 priority trade issues.

COMMERCE REVOKES
PINEAPPLE DUMPING ORDER

Commerce revoked the antidumping duty order on canned pineapple from Thailand because there is no longer any domestic production.

In response to requests by members, the Board of Directors voted to temporarily reduce the AFI arbitration filing fees for members.

For several years, the fee for members filing arbitration claims has been $400 ($800 for two or more contracts with the same party).

For arbitrations filed from April 1-Dec. 31, 2008 the arbitration filing fees will be as follows:

This type of structure allows members to file multiple arbitrations at the same time to save on the fees. If a company has three claims against one party and everything is filed at the same time, the fees would be $300. If a company has three claims against one party and two against another and everything is filed at the same time, the fees would be $450. We have to charge the additional amount for claims against other parties because it’s quite possible the makeup of the arbitration panels will be different, something that requires time and effort on our part. The policy of refunding 50 percent of the fees when a dispute is settled prior to the hearing remains in place

Fees for non-members will remain at $900 for one contract and $1,300 for multiple contracts between the same parties.

The Board will review the fee structure later this year and announce in November any pricing changes for 2009.

The following companies were approved for membership by the AFI Board of Directors at its March 27 meeting:

Regular

Global Ingredients Sourcing, Inc., St. Helena, CA – importer of ingredients and spices

Overseas

Luis Cremades Belmonte e Hijos, S.A., Alcantarilla, Spain – almond processor

Opco Food Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand – exporter of dried fruit and canned pineapple

Sorrento Sapori e Tradizioni SRL, Eboli, Italy – supplier of frozen pizza snacks

ADD AFI TO YOUR
“TRUSTED SENDERS” LIST

In an effort to go “green” AFI issues much of its correspondence via e-mail. In today’s spam-ridden e-society, some e-mails may not reach their intended target due to overzealous spam protection software rejecting our e-mail as “bulk spam.” Please check with your IT administrator to be sure that afius.org is added to your trusted senders list.

The Annual Meeting of the North American Olive Oil Association will take place June 27 in New York.

AFI will host a reception at SIAL in Paris, October 19-23.