Senate bill aids exports for C.B. Fleet

By Bryan Gentry

Published: June 25, 2008

C.B. Fleet’s ability to continue selling cosmetics overseas hinges on a document that no one in the state currently has specific legal permission to sign.

The Virginia Senate passed an emergency bill Wednesday to remedy the situation — one of only three non-transportation measures that the Senate has agreed to consider during the special General Assembly session that began Monday.

The legislation, introduced by Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, would temporarily let the Virginia Department of Health issue a certificate that most countries require before accepting U.S. exports.

Newman said it is an important step to protect the business of a major company based in Lynchburg.

C.B. Fleet, which has about 400 employees in the Lynchburg area, manufactures several lines of medical products and cosmetics. It exports these products for sale in 42 countries.

To sell the products overseas, most foreign countries require a document called a certificate of free sale. It verifies that the product is also sold in the U.S. and has been tested and approved.

The Food and Drug Administration issues the certificates for drug products, but not for cosmetics, a C.B. Fleet official said on Wednesday.

“We had been getting that type of document from the local office of the Virginia Department of Health for about 35 years,” said Donna Mateski de Sanchez, senior international regulatory affairs associate.

But since January, C.B. Fleet has not been able to get the document for cosmetics. The Central Virginia Health District’s interim director, based in Charlottesville, questioned whether the department had authorization to sign the paper.

“It turned out that the interim director … raised a good question,” Sanchez said.

The state Attorney General’s office looked into the matter and concluded there is no law in Virginia specifically giving the department authority to issue the documents, Sanchez said.

Sanchez said many of C.B. Fleet’s certificates of free sale would expire later this year, meaning it had to find a way to get a renewal, or risk having a lot of cosmetics that it couldn’t ship out.

Cosmetics make up a large component of the business, especially in international markets, Sanchez said.

Rex Hammond, Lynchburg Regional Chamber of Commerce president, helped the company contact Newman. The senator agreed to work for an emergency bill giving the health department temporary authority to issue the certificates.

Getting the bill on the docket for the special transportation session required a unanimous vote from all senators, which happened Monday.

Newman also got permission to waive the required three readings, which allowed a final vote Wednesday in the Senate, where it passed 37-0.

It now will proceed to the House of Delegates, where Kathy Byron, R-Campbell, and Shannon Valentine, D-Lynchburg, have agreed to sponsor the legislation.

Newman said he learned Wednesday that the bill probably would go to the house’s Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee next week.

The bill would expire in July 2009. Newman hopes to introduce legislation for a more permanent solution next year.

“We will need to make sure we build that program in a permanent way over the next seven months,” he said.

“We have a large employer … who quietly gives jobs to scores of families in the Lynchburg area,” Newman said. “The last thing we want to do is have the bureaucracy in the state stand between them and their product being sold in over 42 countries.”