Adam Reiser: Trump administration struggles to enforce ‘Buy American’ EO 13788

December 9, 2017 by 1 Comment

Nearly eight months after President Donald J. Trump signed his executive order “Buy American and Hire American,” an expert on certifying whether goods are made in the United States shared with Big League Politics the challenges in certification and enforcing Trump’s intentions.

 

 

 

Adam Reiser, the CEO and founder of Certified, Inc., told Big League Politics he is seeing no action in the executive branch to move the president’s executive order forward.

A source familiar with how the White House drafted the executive order told Big League Politics: “There are zero teeth in it, you know? Let’s of fanfare, lots of publicity, back-slapping and hand-shaking with Trump–and now, it is getting resisted, like as if it meant nothing.”

According to the president’s directive, all agencies were supposed to have turned into both the Department of Commerce and the Office of Management and Budget how they plan to comply. These plans are to include, searchable databases of certified vendors, storage arrangements for the documents and simplifications of their internal procurement procedures.

Reiser said Trump’s executive order was the president’s attempt to bring federal procurement back in synch with the law.

The Buy American Act of 1933 was signed by President Herbert Hoover the day before he handed over the White House to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Act was championed by Rep. Joseph W. Byrne, (D.-Tenn.), then the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and later Speaker of the House.

Byrne’s idea was that given support by the Hearst newspapers and by Hoover’s Commissioner of Customs Francis F.A. Eble, who would go on to start the Buy American Club.

“The law says that the U.S. government has to show preferential treatment to U.S. manufacturers,” Reiser said. “It is so the government has to buy from its own.”

Reiser said that from the 1970s, the federal government has been providing waivers to the 1933 law. “In the 1980s and 1990s, it has picked up big-time.”

When the president signed Executive Order 13788, the White House was optimistic.

President Donald J. Trump holding his Executive Order 13788 at the April 18, 2017 Kenosha, Wis., signing ceremony. (White House photo)

A senior administration official speaking on background on Easter Monday, the day before the executive order was signed in the headquarters of the tool company Snap-On in Kenosha, Wisconsin, said the executive order would correct the abuse of the Buy American Act waiver process.

“Okay, so the culture immediately changes across the agencies.  We have a lax enforcement, lax monitoring, lax compliance,” the official said. Read more of this post

Filed under Aerospace, Apparel, Banking, Beef, Border Tax, Certifications, Children, Construction, Consumer Products, COOL Country of origin labeling, Currency Manipulation, Defense, Domestic Sourcing, Drywall, Economy, Executive Order 13788, Export, Farming, Farms, FTC, Funding, Government, Green, Healthcare, Industry, Internet, Jobs, Labor, Lawsuit, Made in USA, Manufacturing, Media, Mexico, Military, NAFTA/CAFTA, Power of Consumers, President Trump, Press Release, Product of USA, Production, R&D, Reshoring, Slave Labor, Small Business, Startup America, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Tainted Products, Tariff, Tax, Technology, Toys, U.S. Jobs Project, Union, USDA, Walmart, WTO Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Real Truth About Organic Strawberries

May 8, 2017 by Leave a comment

Certified organic strawberries aren’t so organic after all. Although organic strawberries sell for 50% to 100% more than conventional berries, organic strawberries are fumigated with toxic chemicals, including methyl bromide, at the beginning stages of their life-cycle.

Methyl bromide, is used to sterilize the soil before strawberries are planted. It’s not sprayed on the fruit. It’s a soil fumigant that kills just about everything it touches. Many hybridized seed varieties have been created that can only grow in sterile soil.

“The soil is, as a matter of fact, full of live organisms. It is essential to conceive of it as something pulsating with life, not as a dead or inert mass.”

– Albert Howard, The Soil and Health, 1947

“For most of agriculture’s 10,000-year history, farmers have succeeded or failed based on their ability to nurture life within soil. The microorganisms and earthworms that thrive in healthy soil metabolize nutrients and make them available for crops. They also convert animal and vegetable waste into humus, thus regenerating their own habitat and maintaining that thin layer of topsoil on which all terrestrial life depends.
In modern agriculture, however, soil operates as a medium, not a habitat: It exists to transfer synthetic, pre-metabolized nutrients from factories to crops. In this regime, any life form found in soil is at best innocuous — and at worst a threat. When a vast field is planted in the same crop year after year, its pests concentrate in the soil, waiting to strike.”

 

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Filed under Certifications, COOL Country of origin labeling, Farming, Food, FTC, Organic, Pollution, Supply Chain, Tainted Products, USDA Tagged with ,

7 Foods Made In China You Must Avoid

April 11, 2017 by Leave a comment

Nowadays, more and more people are becoming aware of the fact that many of the foods we consume daily have been imported from China.

These are the some of the current most dangerous foods imported in China we consume daily:

1. Apple Juice

China is well known to use dangerous pesticides in the production of foods, including banned pesticides. Also, nearly 50% of all apple juice sold in the United States is imported from China.

2. Industrial Salt

The Chinese often use salt produced for industrial purposes as table salt, so there are high chances that we often consume industrial salt as well, which can lead to high stroke and heart attack risk, high blood pressure, and hypertension.

3. Cod Fish

Half of the American Cod is imported from China, and you have probably already heard about the water pollution and feeding issue with this fish in China.

4. Chicken

China often has issues with avian flu and other foodborne illnesses, and in 2013, the US Department of Agriculture approved the sale of Chinese chicken in America. However, research has also shown that the chicken there are fed and kept in disastrous conditions.

5. Chinese Garlic

31% of the garlic we use is imported from China, and Chinese use tons of harmful pesticides in the production of these foods, especially methyl bromide.

 6. Tilapia Fish

Furthermore, 80% of the tilapia sold in the United States is also Chinese. The tilapia fish is a bottom feeder, meaning that I consume all it can find. Yet, if we consider the water pollution, we can state that the consumption of anything raised in that water would be not just unsafe, but extremely dangerous.

 7. Plastic Rice

It has also been reported that China also produces fake, plastic rice. This rice is made of resin and potatoes and stays hard when boiled.

We believe that these facts above surely made you think that it is always better to stay on the safe side and buy and consume local, organic foods.

Filed under Chemical, China, COOL Country of origin labeling, Food, Supply Chain, Tainted Products Tagged with , , , , ,

OK Food Inc. Recalls 933,272 lbs of Breaded Chicken Products Due To Possible Foreign Matter Contamination

March 28, 2017 by Leave a comment

 Class: I Recall 030-2017
Health Risk: High
Congressional and Public Affairs
Maria Machuca
(202) 720-9113
Press@fsis.usda.gov 

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2017 – OK Food, Inc., an Oklahoma City, Okla. establishment, is recalling approximately 933,272 pounds of breaded chicken products that may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically metal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The ready-to-eat (RTE) breaded chicken items were produced on various dates from Dec. 19, 2016 through March 7, 2017. A list of the products subject to recall can be found here PDF | View Labels.

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Filed under Certifications, Consumer Alert, Recall, Tainted Products, USDA Tagged with , , ,

Brazil’s Rotten Meat Scandal

March 21, 2017 by Leave a comment

The agriculture ministry said in an online statement that China had suspended imports of meat from Brazil in health scare (AFP Photo/Miguel SCHINCARIOL)

Brasília (AFP) – The fallout from Brazil’s rotten meat scandal accelerated on Monday when China, a huge client, suspended imports and the European Union demanded a partial ban.

Another ban on Brazilian meat imposed by Chile sparked fears of a trade spat between the two South American partners.

A charm offensive by President Michel Temer, who even invited foreign ambassadors to a traditional meat restaurant in the capital Brasilia late Sunday, failed to calm importers.

China, which with Hong Kong is Brazil’s biggest meat export market, said it needed to know more about the allegations that major meatpacking businesses bribed inspectors to get health certificates and masked tainted meat as fit for consumption.

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Filed under Beef, Brazil, China, EU, Farming, Power of Consumers, Recall, Supply Chain, Tainted Products Tagged with , , , , ,

Shocking Truth About Garlic Imported From China

March 20, 2017 by Leave a comment

Known for its antibiotic features and helpful for treating many bacterial and inflammatory issues, the garlic is widely used not only in the preparation of many remedies, but thanks to its special flavors and scent also used in various dishes and even eaten raw.

But note, not every garlic found on the market is as safe to use, but the latest report of several researchers have shown that the garlic imported from China can have a bad influence on the organism and instead of healthy compounds it’s enriched with high levels of pesticides and deadly toxins.

Most of the garlic that was imported into the USA from China last year had high levels of banned toxic chemicals, which can have devastating effects on a person’s health.

It’s all due to outlawed/banned pesticides Chinese producers use, such as phorate and parathion to accelerate the growth of the products.

Therefore, all of these chemicals get transferred into the products resulting in harm to a human organism knowing how widely and often is used in our kitchens.

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Filed under Certifications, Chemical, Chemicals, Children, China, Consumer Alert, COOL Country of origin labeling, Farms, Food, FTC, Power of Consumers, Product of USA, Tainted Products, USDA Tagged with , , , , ,

Peanut butter substitute recalled after E. coli outbreak

March 6, 2017 by Leave a comment

Associated Press

A peanut butter substitute sold by an Illinois company is being recalled because 12 cases of E. coli have been linked to the product.

Glenview-based I.M. Health SoyNut Butter Co . is voluntarily recalling its SoyNut Butter products.

E. coli cases in Arizona, California, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon have been linked to the nut-free product

Bite of Peanut Butter Sandwitch

iStock

Illinois public health Director Dr. Nirav Shah says some E. coli infections are mild but others may be life-threatening. Young children are particularly vulnerable.

Health officials recommend people not eat any variety or size of I.M. Healthy-brand SoyNut Butter products or granola coated with the company’s SoyNut Butter.

Filed under Retail, Supply Chain, Tainted Products, USDA Tagged with ,

$120M in counterfeit designer cosmetics seized in China

March 1, 2017 by Leave a comment

 Naturalnews.com

Woman putting on makeup

(Natural News) Chinese police have seized $120 million worth of counterfeit luxury cosmetics in an ongoing series of raids against a major crime ring.

The fake merchandise, consisting of 1,200 boxes falsely branded with the labels Chanel, Christian Dior, Estée Lauder, and L’Oréal SA’s Lancôme, was seized in a series of seven separate raids. Fifteen people were arrested, and 13 of them have been charged with crimes.

The ongoing operation began last year, when reports surfaced that an online store was selling cosmetics falsely labeled with the Amway brand name. Chinese police investigated and eventually raided the online store’s warehouse, confiscating 100 boxes of counterfeit Amway cosmetics worth $30,000. That raid led to information that allowed police to identify the seven other operations that were recently raided.

A major industry

According to police, the counterfeit cosmetics ring was distributing fake products nationwide. The fake products were sold for a 900 percent profit. The counterfeiters had a policy of quickly responding to any complaints with a full refund, in the hopes of avoiding calls to the police.

One man has allegedly confessed to running the manufacturing end of the ring. He says that he bought the ingredients online, then purchased the packaging from Guangdong province to the south. The bar codes on the boxes were copied from authentic products. Read more of this post

Filed under Certifications, China, Consumer Alert, Consumer Products, CPG, Manufacturing, Power of Consumers, Tainted Products Tagged with , ,

Scientists Use DNA Testing to Detect Seafood Fraud

January 15, 2017 by Leave a comment

bluefin-tuna-was-the-only-fish-that-was-labeled-in-100-of-samples

How much did you pay for that slice of halibut sashimi? What about those two pieces of red snapper? According to a study published in the journal Conservation Biology on Friday, you likely paid too much. This may be frustrating news for sushi lovers, but it’s good news for flounder lovers: Any time you’ve been served halibut in a sushi restaurant, rest assured that you probably ate flounder. But the problem is much broader than just this one substitution. Demian Willette, of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California Los Angeles , and his colleagues found that 47 percent of the samples they collected were mislabeled. That means your odds of getting the sushi you ordered are slightly better than a coin toss.

If you think this is an issue associated with lower-tier sushi joints, think again. Willette and his colleagues had their undergraduate students gather samples over four years from 26 sushi restaurants that were rated highly by customers on Zagat and Yelp in the greater Los Angeles area. They used a genetic testing technique called DNA barcoding, in which particular portions of DNA can be used to identify an individual as part of a species, to verify the identities of the samples. All of the restaurants had at least one incident of mislabeling during the four year period, with an average mislabeling rate of 45.5 percent.

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Filed under Consumer Alert, Consumer Products, COOL Country of origin labeling, CPG, Farming, Food, Organic, Pollution, Power of Consumers, Retail, Seafood, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Tainted Products Tagged with , , ,

Alibaba is taking the fight to sellers of counterfeit goods

January 4, 2017 by Leave a comment

 

Alibaba sues sellers of counterfeit goods after it was blacklisted by the US
Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is taking the fight to sellers of counterfeit goods and, for the first time, suing two merchants on one of its e-commerce platforms – just days after it was blacklisted by the U.S. government for hosting fake items.

The Chinese firm filed a lawsuit against two sellers of fake Swarovski watches on its eBay-like Taobao platform with the Shenzhen Longgang District People’s Court, claiming 1.4 million yuan ($201,482) in damages.

While it may not seem like a large amount for a company like Alibaba but the company is hoping to stop others from hosting dodgy items.

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Filed under China, Consumer Products, COOL Country of origin labeling, Power of Consumers, Retail, Supply Chain, Tainted Products, Tariff Tagged with , ,

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