A Holiday Message From Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt

With Christmas coming up and lots of holiday shopping to do, many Americans are concerned about the safety of food and products they buy. Today a great share of what we can find in the stores are imported from other countries, and to question the origin of those products, as well as the import safety is a wise thing to do.

Imagine the holiday food that was so delicious, but unfortunately wasn't shipped right, or was contaminated with different bacteria then what we have here causing the rest of the holiday to go down the drain as we rush back and forth to the bathroom.

Or the teddy bear we gave to a kid in the family, but the material wasn't good enough so when the kid came close to a candle the teddy bear burst into flames almost burning the house down.

It's these things Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt wants to confront, after he recently presented President Bush with an Action Plan. In this plan it states that we must "provide specific recommendations to enhance the safety of the increasing volume of imports entering the United States."

Suggested methods are to increase penalties up to $10 million, have an enhanced enforcement authority, and keeping up more U.S. presence abroad at overseas facilities, and also to use new certification methods of exporters in other countries.

On Tuesday Secretary Leavitt is going to visit the Port of Otay Mesa Cargo Facility, the third busiest cargo port in the Southwest. They process around 3,000 cargo trucks daily, and during his visit Leavitt will talk about how to better protect consumers, and about import safety.

Secretary Leavitt has an upcoming trip to China, where he will engage in conversations with the Chinese government, and hopefully be able to finalize agreements about the safety of Chinese-made goods that get imported into the US.