Customs Agents Uncover Rerouted Chinese Apparel.U.S. customs officials at the Port of Los Angeles The Port of Los Angeles is located on San Pedro Bay in the San Pedro neighborhood of Los Angeles, approximately 20 miles (30 km) south of downtown. Also called Los Angeles Harbor and WORLDPORT LA are stopping tons of apparel goods marked "Made in Cambodia" or "Made in Hong Kong Hong Kong (hŏng kŏng), Mandarin Xianggang, special administrative region of China, formerly a British crown colony (2005 est. pop. 6,899,000), land area 422 sq mi (1,092 sq km), adjacent to Guangdong prov. " because they suspect the goods may have been rerouted illegally from China. China is one of the top producers of apparel imported to the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . But as that country quickly surpasses its import quotas Import quotas are a form of protectionism. An import quota fixes the quantity of a particular good that foreign producers may bring into a country over a specific period, usually a year. The U.S. government imposes quotas to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. , some importers are transshipping their goods to other countries, sticking on new labels, and then shipping them here, customs brokers said. "We have stopped a fair amount," said Bruce Raine, an import specialist with U.S. Customs in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. . "Why this is happening we can't pinpoint. It could be that we are looking more, or there is more coming in. It's hard to tell." U.S. Customs did not have statistics that measure how severe the problem has become. What is clear is that in Los Angeles County, more apparel is imported from China than from any other country. In 1999 (the latest year for which statistics are available), L.A. imported $6 billion of apparel goods from China, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Another $1.1 billion came from Hong Kong, which is under a different quota. Last year, a flood of clothing imports came into local seaports from Cambodia, which in late 1996 received "most favored nation Most Favored Nation A privilege granted by one country to another whereby the products of the privileged country pay the lowest delivered duty paid charged by the granting country. " trading status with the United States. "We started to see things hit in May 1999," said Theresa Guerrero, a senior import specialist with U.S. Customs. "We started to see things that were not correct on the documentation. There were fraudulent (import) visas." That continued until June 2000, when fewer false visas showed up, Guerrero said. But the problem persists. Illegal textile transshipments are nothing new, according to the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees “UNITE” redirects here. For the UK student accommodation company, see UNITE Group plc. The Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE . But as more countries gain "most favored nation" status and are subject to lower tariffs, foreign apparel manufacturers try to save money or skirt import quotas by sending their goods to Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan or even Qatar. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion