I'm not sure what the situation is in the US, but farmers north of the border get upset when their livestock is ordered to be destroyed due to disease. So yeah, there is probably lobbying. It's simply not for the reasons implied.
The article touched upon other illegal imports due to invasive species, such as wood products. I doubt that there is a wood carver's lobby that is trying to have the work of foreign craftsmen banned. They don't need such a lobby since once an alien species (or disease) gets a foothold it is near impossible to stop and very difficult to slow.
> The article touched upon other illegal imports due to invasive species
Import of plants into the US is completely unregulated, which is why fruit trees and interesting plants from all over the world are available in the US.
It's because inbound international mail isn't inspected, which isn't the case in most other countries.
Both of your statements are false. Things slip through cracks, but there's an extensive amount of enforcement effort that goes into regulating and restricting entry of plants into the US.
Further, of course inbound international parcels are inspected [1]. As with any sort of border inspection, USPS and CBP rely on random samples and targeted efforts of limited scope.
There are more types of fruit trees in the US than in any other country. I'm active on fruit tree enthusiast forums where members buy seeds online from every corner of the world. They are never inspected.
By comparison, I have to open every single package I import in front of a customs agent, and I live in a third world country. This is after they've been x-rayed by customs.
I mean, just recently Americans all over the country were receiving seeds in the mail from overseas and your govt had to issue warnings. Such warnings would be unnecessary in my country because every package is inspected.
Millions upon millions of packages arrive into your country every week from Aliexpress and other foreign online marketplaces. None of these are inspected.
Again, your statements are false. The fact that the majority of parcels aren't being individually inspected doesn't mean that none are inspected or that violators are absolutely immune to consequences.
As implemented currently, US import inspections are designed to maximize throughput while catching the most flagrant violators. Extremely easy-to-smuggle items in low risk categories like seeds are obviously more often than not going to make their way past enforcement checkpoints under this arrangement.
The article touched upon other illegal imports due to invasive species, such as wood products. I doubt that there is a wood carver's lobby that is trying to have the work of foreign craftsmen banned. They don't need such a lobby since once an alien species (or disease) gets a foothold it is near impossible to stop and very difficult to slow.