President Donald Trump has called on major US package delivery operators to “search for and refuse” shipments from China that contain fentanyl, a synthetic opioid painkiller that can be 50-100 times more powerful than morphine and which is behind one of the worst drug abuse crises that the country has ever experienced, according to US media.
In a 'tweetstorm,' he urged FedEx, UPS, Amazon and the United States Postal Service (USPS) specifically, to look for “an alternative to China.” China is the largest source of fentanyl to the US, according to a 2017 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
“I am ordering all carriers, including Fed Ex, Amazon, UPS and the Post Office, to SEARCH FOR & REFUSE, …. all deliveries of Fentanyl from China (or anywhere else!),” Trump exhorted. “President Xi said this would stop – it didn’t,” he tweeted, a reference to China’s President Xi Jinping.
It is unclear whether his statements will be backed up with official guidelines from federal agencies.
Trump's zero-tolerance move against fentanyl exports from China came as the US and Chinese authorities raised tariffs on each other's goods, the latest salvos in the ongoing trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
In response, US parcel delivery majors underlined that they were already working to stop traffickers of the drug from using their services.
UPS said in a brief statement: “UPS follows all applicable laws and regulatory requirements of the governments in the countries where we do business. We work closely with all law enforcement and regulatory authorities to monitor for prohibited substances.
“UPS takes a multi-layered approach to security and compliance to identify and prevent delivery of illegal fentanyl and other illicit substances as well as any other attempts of noncompliant shipments. We work closely with all law enforcement agencies to identify and remove all illegal and counterfeit shipments coming in from abroad.”
Meanwhile, in a statement sent to CEP-Research, FedEx commented: “FedEx already has extensive security measures in place to prevent the use of our networks for illegal purposes. We follow the laws and regulations everywhere we do business and have a long history of close cooperation with authorities. FedEx supported passage of the STOP (Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention) Act and encourages accelerated implementation and enforcement of its provisions to protect the health and safety of the American people.”
Firms such as UPS and FedEx track packages electronically which has had the effect of deterring some drug traffickers who have exploited shortcomings in the USPS’ own tracking system.
In a statement last week, when it announced sanctions against three Chinese nationals accused of trafficking fentanyl, the US Treasury noted that the most common distribution medium of the drug is via the USPS.
Drug traffickers are said to target US ports of entry and international mail centres, where parcel and vehicle inspections are limited due to staffing shortages and other constraints.
One media report quoted a statement from the USPS in which the postal operator said it was “aggressively working to implement provisions of the STOP Act to keep dangerous drugs from entering the United States from China and other countries.
The legislation required the USPS to receive advance electronic data (AED) – including the names and addresses of senders and recipients, package contents and other information – on all shipments from China by the end of 2018 and from all countries by the end of 2020.
China’s STOP compliance has lagged and the USPS and the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have informed China’s postal operator any US-bound shipment without AED may be returned at any time, the postal operator said.
Meanwhile, the USPS and its law enforcement arm, the Postal Inspection Service, continue to work with government and law enforcement agencies to combat the trafficking of illicit drugs like fentanyl, it underlined.
The Trump administration has made combatting Chinese exports of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals a priority.
Last year, Trump was reported to have asked China to seek the death penalty for distributors of fentanyl and said that he had reached an agreement with President Xi Jinping to take measures against the drug that were “very exciting.”
Earlier this year, China had announced that it would expand control of fentanyl-related substances by adding it to the supplementary list of controlled narcotic drugs.
