U.S. stops faulty imported vehicles

U.S. stops faulty imported vehicles    U.S. Customs officers and investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency recently seized at the Port of Savannah off-road motorcycles with engines that violated the Clean Air Act.
   The motorbikes have an estimated street value of $125,000, Customs and Border Protection said last week.
   During fiscal year 2010, ended Sept. 30, the two agencies confiscated $6.5 million worth of imported vehicles and generators that did not have required pollution controls.

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   CBP said it focuses inspection efforts on companies that have a history of non-compliance with environmental laws and calls in EPA specialists to make a final determination.
   Under the Clean Air Act, new vehicles and engines imported into the country must have an emissions label and a corresponding EPA certificate of conformity stating that the vehicle or engine meets federal emissions requirements.
   EPA, along with several other agencies, last month agreed to strengthen their collaboration with CBP on import safety. CBP last year established a Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center to more surgically analyze available data and identify suspicious shipments with import safety violations. A handful of agencies plan to station personnel at the CTAC, but the EPA is not one of them yet. ' Eric Kulisch