U.S. Eases Border Rules

FDA to Require 2-Hour Notice of Food Imports

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img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>The government has significantly softened earlier proposals for anti-terrorism rules covering cross-border food shipments, heading off what could have caused chaos for haulers of food and agricultural commodities, industry officials said last week.

The original proposal would have created problems for many agriculture haulers who operate on extremely short delivery schedules because of the nature of their business, said Randal Mullett, director of government relations for CNF Inc.

“The agricultural producers want to take something out of the ground and get it to you the same day. This [original rule] would have meant that you would have had to predict on Friday what you were going to deliver on Monday. That isn’t practical, and could have really tied up the food supply,” he said.

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