The New York Times News

Real Fur, Masquerading as Faux

The Stuart Weitzman ballet flats from Neiman Marcus sported sweet faux fur pom-poms. The Alice and Olivia coat was trimmed with a dark faux fur collar.

The problem was that the faux fur was, in fact, real fur.

That’s right: it was faux faux fur.

In a forehead-slapping development, Neiman Marcus and two other retailers, DrJays.com and Eminent, on Tuesday settled federal claims that they had marketed real fur as fake fur. The supposedly fake stuff was actually rabbit, raccoon and, possibly, dyed mink.

Animal protection groups applauded the settlement, reached with the Federal Trade Commission, saying many retailers have been selling real fur disguised as fake fur.

On the face of it, the real-for-fake switch might not seem to make business sense. But because many people are no longer buying real fur, manufacturers and retailers are scrambling to meet growing demand for faux fur. As a result, some products are being mislabeled.

“The lines between real and fake have gotten really blurry,” said Dan Mathews, a senior vice president with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “In this global marketplace, there are fur farms in China that raise dogs for clothing that is labeled as fake fur here in the U.S. because that’s what the market best responds to.”

Others chalk up the incorrect labeling to sloppy product descriptions.

Hymie Betesh, the founder and chief executive of DrJays.com, says his company sells about 50,000 styles of products each year on its Web site.

“There were a handful of instances where a word may have been omitted in our product descriptions, and others where the word ‘fur’ was used to describe the style of a product, not intending to describe fabric content,” Mr. Betesh said in an e-mail.

Eminent, doing business as Revolve Clothing, according to the F.T.C., did not respond to an e-mail requesting a comment.

Under the F.T.C. settlement, which is preliminary and carries no financial penalties, the retailers will be subject to significant fines if they mislabel fur again in the next 20 years.

Mislabeling real fur — inexpensive rabbit as luxurious mink, say — is an old game. But mislabeling real fur as fake fur is relatively new. The three retailers were accused of violating a fur law that was enacted in the 1950s and, at the time, was meant to prevent people from marketing furs like rabbit under its English name, Coney, or selling muskrat as Hudson Seal.

The F.T.C. investigation was prompted by a petition filed last fall by the Humane Society of the United States.

Each year since 2006, when the Humane Society received an anonymous communication that a retailer was going to be advertising an animal fur product as fake fur in a printed circular, the group has conducted investigations. It scours Web sites and stores for mislabeled products. Suspected real-fur items are sent to a lab for testing.

Last fall, the group found fur where it was not supposed to be in a handful of products sold at 11 retailers, including the three in settlement announced Tuesday, as well as Dillard’s and Barneys New York, according to a complaint filed by the organization.

“We continue to find animal fur sold as faux fur every single season,” said Pierre Grzybowski, the research and enforcement manager of the Fur-Free campaign for the Humane Society.

Neiman Marcus is a frequent target of the group. In 2007, for instance, the Human Society found a children’s Andrew Marc jacket whose label said it was 100 percent polyester.

Testing, however, identified fur from a raccoon dog, a member of the Canid family, which includes dogs, wolves, foxes and coyotes.

A later investigation by the F.T.C. resulted in no action.

In 2008, when the Humane Society discovered raccoon dog fur misidentified as fake fur on several coats sold at Neiman Marcus and other national retailers, it sued the retailers. In 2010, Neiman Marcus paid a $25,000 judgment after a District of Columbia court found that the retailer had violated consumer protection laws.

That same year, a $1,895 St. John coat that was advertised as raccoon fur on the Neiman Marcus Web site tested as being raccoon dog.

In an e-mailed statement, a spokeswoman for Neiman Marcus said the company maintained a robust program to comply with all laws and regulations. And under the F.T.C. agreement, Neiman Marcus “has committed to identify correctly and promote accurately the fur and faux fur products offered in our catalogs and on our Web sites,” the statement said.

Phrases:

• “On the face of it, the real-for-fake switch might not seem to make business sense. But because many people are no longer buying real fur, manufacturers and retailers are scrambling to meet growing demand for faux fur. As a result, some products are being mislabeled.”

• “Mislabeling real fur — inexpensive rabbit as luxurious mink, say — is an old game. But mislabeling real fur as fake fur is relatively new.”

Comentario:

El hecho de que los comerciantes digan que venden piel real como sintética para satisfacer el mercado es simplemente escabroso. La gente que compra esos productos los compra con la convicción de que están comprando un producto sintético, que no daña o maltrata al medio ambiente, ya que esta es la nueva tendencia, y afortunadamente ya se piensa un poco más en la naturaleza.

Pero estos comerciantes parece que no les importa la naturaleza, solamente llenar sus bolsillos engañando a la gente, esperemos que se les pueda judicializar o multar de manera efectiva, y no solo por medio de la protección al consumidor, sino por el daño al medio ambiente y ojala se fortalezca la justicia para este tipo de casos, ya que como se menciona en la lectura esta modalidad de cambio entre piel sintética y real es relativamente nueva y no hay maneras efectivas de controlarlas.

Fuente: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/business/faux-fur-case-settled-by-neiman-marcus-and-2-other-retailers.html?ref=business&_r=0

Conceptos exportación de frutas

• Reefer: es un tipo de container que que se caracteriza por estar refrigerado y sirve para transportar, por ejemplo, alimentos. Estos containers también son de 20 o 40 pies de largo y de 8 x 8 de ancho.

• Factura comercial: es  un documento donde se especifican las condiciones de la venta y especificaciones del producto negociado. También sirve como comprobante de la venta y se exige tanto para la exportación como para la importación   

• Embalaje: es un recipiente o cajas, en las cuales se agrupan varias unidades de un mismo producto y con esto se facilita su manejo y transporte. 

• Estiba: es una tabla que sirve para colocar encima de ella las cargas ya unitarizadas y, por la misma forma de la estiba, se facilita su levantamiento y posterior transporte 

• Registro fito sanitario: Es un documento que se exige para la exportación de frutas, este debe dar fe de la calidad y buen estado del producto para que sea apto para el consumo.

Modalidades de Exportación

• Muestras sin valor comercial: Esta hace referencia a la exportación de artículos o productos a alguna empresa con el fin de darles a conocer el producto, este producto no se le cobra a la otra parte y su valor comercial no puede ser de mas de 10 mil dolares.
• Exportación temporal para perfeccionamiento pasivo en cumplimiento de garantía:  Es cuando, por ejemplo, se daña una maquina y la empresa afectada pide la garantía a la empresa responsable, esta ultima probablemente deba exportar esa maquina a un país donde estén los talleres para poderla arreglar, ya después de arreglada se reimporta al país de donde salio para devolvérsela a la empresa afectada.
• Envíos postales y urgentes: este tipo de exportaciones tienen prioridad, generalmente son documentos o cosas de urgencia vital, como por ejemplo una medicina, este tipo de envíos no pueden superar el valor de mil dolares.

• Exportación de menaje: Esta hace referencia a la exportación que hacen los agentes diplomáticos de algún estado al traer sus cosas e ingresarlas a otro estado, estos artículos tendrán un arancel especial.

Conceptos Decreto 2685/1999

• Aduana/Customs: es un ente público el cual está encargado de vigilar, supervisar y controlar el tráfico de mercancías desde y hacia el exterior de las fronteras nacionales.

• Arancel/Tariff: es un impuesto que se aplica a las mercancías sujetas a importaciones o exportaciones, principalmente las de importaciones.

• Exportación/Export: Es cuando se da la salida de mercancías dentro de un Estado hacia otra parte del mundo como producto del comercio entre los Estados, por ejemplo una empresa produce zapatos en Estados Unidos y los exporta a Colombia para que se comercialicen acá.

• Embarque/Shipment: Es cuando se introducen las mercancías a exportar en un barco, avión, o cualquier otro medio de transporte el cual las llevará a su lugar de destino.

• Cabotaje/Cabotage: Es el transporte de mercancías por agua o aire que se da dentro del territorio aduanero nacional.

The New York Times News

Nestlé Removes 2 Products in Horse Meat Scandal

LONDON — First centered on Britain and Ireland, the scandal over beef products adulterated with horse meat escalated across Continental Europe on Tuesday after Nestlé, one of the world’s best-known food companies, said it was removing pasta meals from store shelves in Italy and Spain.

Nestlé, which is based in Switzerland, said it had increased testing after the discoveries of horse meat in British foods and “traces” of horse DNA in two products made with beef supplied by a German company, H. J. Schypke.

The involvement of Nestlé is a significant act in a fast-moving situation that is forcing Europeans to question the contents of their meals.

Before the announcement, the horse meat crisis had already spread, with perhaps a dozen countries caught up in product recalls.

Nestlé said it was confident that products in the American market were unaffected.

“Nestlé U.S.A. does not use meat sourced from Europe,” a company statement said. “Additionally, U.S.D.A. meat inspectors are in all processing plants and also have responsibility to oversee any imported meat. We have also requested and received confirmation from all our meat suppliers that they do not provide Nestlé U.S.A. with any meat from the affected countries and companies.”

The United States does not import beef from any of the countries where the contaminated meat was found, according to the Agriculture Department. Nestlé U.S.A. uses beef from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, the company said.

Two refrigerated Nestlé pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, are being taken off supermarket shelves in Italy and Spain immediately. In addition, Lasagnes à la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen meat product made for caterers in France, will also be withdrawn and replaced with product made from 100 percent beef. None of those products are imported from Europe into the United States, Nestlé said.

The levels of horse DNA in the products were above the 1 percent threshold used by the British Food Standards Agency as an indicator of adulteration in testing being done by Britain’s food industry and therefore the products would be withdrawn, Nestlé said in a statement.

“There is no food safety issue, but the mislabeling of products means they fail to meet the very high standards consumers expect from us,” Nestlé added.

Nestlé knows well the importance of its brand image, having once been the object of a boycott after being involved in a controversy over the marketing of baby milk in developing countries.

Although the current horse meat crisis has been considered mainly an issue of fraud and mislabeling, evidence emerged last week that a powerful equine painkiller, phenylbutazone — or bute — may have entered the food chain.

Eight horses slaughtered for food in Britain tested positive for the drug. Six of those carcasses had already been exported to France for use in human food.

In Britain, food manufacturers have embarked on a huge program of food tests to try to stem a crisis of confidence in products originating in a bewilderingly complex supply chain.

Last Friday, the British Food Standards Agency released the results of 2,501 tests conducted on beef products by the British food industry, of which 29 contained more than 1 percent horse meat.

But just as that information was released, it emerged separately that food intended for school meals had also contained horse meat. Finger-pointing has erupted between politicians and supermarkets over responsibility.

The European Union has also announced an increase in food testing, although there are growing calls for more regulation at a European level. Though tough traceability rules for fresh beef products were introduced after the crisis over mad cow disease more than a decade ago, a similar regime is not in place for processed food.

“What has been discovered in recent days is large-scale fraud,” said Richard Seeber, the coordinator for the center-right group in the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee of the European Parliament. “This is a clear breach of current European food labeling rules. This is why the first thing we need is more controls and better enforcement of the existing rules.”

Glenis Willmott, the leader of the British Labour Party’s members of the European Parliament, said that the response of the European Union’s executive body, the European Commission, had been inadequate.

“The horse meat scandal should result in a Europe-wide comprehensive legislation on ‘origin labeling’ for all meat in processed foods, and a better E.U. enforcement procedure,” Ms. Willmott said.

There are no horse slaughterhouses operating in the United States, and no horse meat is imported for human consumption, making the chances that Americans are unintentionally eating horse meat fairly remote, a U.S.D.A. spokesman said.

Me parece muy preocupante esta noticia, por que muestra irregularidades graves en una empresa tan grande y prestigiosa como Nestle, que existan pedazos de carne de caballo en sus productos daria a entender que no se están llevando los controles de salubridad minimos y necesarios para poder venderlos. Acá en Colombia también salió la noticia de que en las tiendas estaban vendiendo carne de caballo como si fuera carne de res, y seria culpa de los mismos mataderos que venden la carne como si fuera de res y también por los preparios controles que se hacen sobre esas carnes. Esperemos que esto se solucione y se aclare para, ademas, determinar si productos contaminados llegaron a América y se vendieron acá.

• "Last Friday, the British Food Standards Agency released the results of 2,501 tests conducted on beef products by the British food industry, of which 29 contained more than 1 percent horse meat."
• “The horse meat scandal should result in a Europe-wide comprehensive legislation on ‘origin labeling’ for all meat in processed foods.”

Fuente:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/world/europe/nestle-pulls-2-products-in-horse-meat-scandal.html?ref=globalhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/world/europe/nestle-pulls-2-products-in-horse-meat-scandal.html?ref=global

Conceptos Ley 7/91

• Zonas Francas: Son zonas determinadas del país en las cuales el gobierno otorga ciertos beneficios tributarios para fomentar el comercio con otros países y generar un proceso de industrialización en la región.

Free trade zone: There are certain areas of the country in which the government provides certain tax benefits to encourage the trade with other countries and generate a process of industrialization in the region.

• Exportación: Es cuando se da la salida de mercancías dentro de un Estado hacia otra parte del mundo como producto del comercio entre los Estados, por ejemplo una empresa produce zapatos en Estados Unidos y los exporta a Colombia para que se comercialicen acá.

Export: It occurs when the goods inside a State go to another part of the world as a result of trade between the States, for example a company produces shoes in the United States and exported to Colombia to be marketed here.

• Importación: Es cuando se da la entrada de bienes o servicios de origen extranjero a un estado como consecuencia del comercio previo con un agente extranjero, esto sucede cuando un Estado le vende productos a otro, el que los compra está importando esa mercancía para su comercio interno.

Import: This occurs when goods arrive from abroad to a state as a result of previous trade with a foreign agent, this happens when a country sells goods to another, the buyer is importing goods for domestic trade.

• Divisa: Una Divisa es el tipo de moneda que se usa en los demás Estados diferentes al nuestro.  Estas tienen un valor determinado de cambio con relación a nuestra moneda y el conocimiento de este valor sirve para el correcto comercio entre los Estados.

Foreign exchange: A foreign exchange is the currency used in the other states different from ours. These have a certain value in relation to exchange our currency and knowledge of this value is used to correct trade between states.

• Comercio Exterior: Es el intercambio de bienes y servicios, por medio de exportaciones e importaciones, que se da entre los Estados para suplir sus necesidades internas.

External trade: It is the exchange of goods and services, through exports and imports, which occurs between states to meet their domestic needs.

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