Business View Magazine Jan-2019

160 BVM: What are some of the most pressing and current issues in the natural products sector? LeDoux: “I’ve been privileged to serve as the Chair- man of the Board of the Natural Products Associa- tion (NPA),which is over 80 years old, and represents the natural products industry in the United States, of which there are thousands and thousands of members. I was just at the White House with several colleagues, and seated at the table with me were representatives of multi-billion dollar corporations. The concerns that we expressed at the White House regarded the need to manage this situation of tariffs with China and others,more judiciously.There’s no question, if you’re going to take a hard look at how certain countries do their trade, that the United States has been taken advantage of. But to put blan- ket tariffs on single-source suppliers without look- ing at howwe stand up as suppliers that can do the same product in the United States, I think is just a wee bit short-sighted.There are other opportunities, I think, to pursue freer and fairer trade. But we’ll see what the administration comes back with; I’m hope- ful that the Chinese and the U.S. government will sit down and work on something that truly is fair and balanced. So that’s a front-burner issue, because it is impacting the cost of goods for everyone. “There are some other front burner issues.We’ve been working very closely with the Food and Drug Administration to try and identify those products that are being sold that are illegal, per se, in the United States.The FDA has a tough job to do be- cause it has to enforce all types of regulations