Several industry associations voiced their support for the proposed rule on the importation of live bovines and products derived from bovines with regard to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease), published by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on March 16. The California Cattlemen’s Association, National Milk Producers Association, and Montana Stockgrowers Association all submitted favorable comments on June 14 to APHIS on the rule, which would provide for new risk-based conditions by establishing a system for classifying regions as to BSE risk that is largely consistent with the system employed by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).
The Court of International Trade sustained the final results of the International Trade Administration’s 2007-08 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on floor-standing, metal-top ironing tables and certain parts thereof (A-570-888), after Home Products International, which had in April been granted a motion for reconsideration of an aspect of the final results that had resulted in a remand to the ITA, withdrew its challenge. CIT ordered all entries enjoined by this action to be liquidated.
A temporary injunction enjoining liquidation of entries of ball bearings from Germany produced by Schaeffler KG or Schaeffler Technologies GmbH & Co. KG and entered for consumption from May 1, 2010 to April 30, 2011 was ordered by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The temporary injunction was ordered in response to a motion for injunction, pending appeal, in an ongoing challenge of the International Trade Commission’s injury finding in a sunset review of several ball bearings orders.
In a case involving U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s tariff classification, and denial of eligibility for NAFTA duty-free entry, of plaintiff’s candied peanuts imported from Mexico in 2007, the Court of International Trade dismissed Rogelio Salazar Cavazos’ claims regarding CBP’s denial of his requested NAFTA importation duty refund claims. CIT said it had no jurisdiction over the matter because Salazar never filed a protest with CBP over its determination of the goods’ NAFTA eligibility. Salazar’s HTS classification protest did not likewise cover NAFTA eligibility, it said, and he was eligible to file a second protest, contrary to his arguments. However, Salazar’s claims challenging CBP’s tariff classification of the goods fall within its jurisdiction, CIT said, because he filed a valid protest that CBP denied, and so did not dismiss those claims.
A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel rejected several aspects of Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on U.S. electrical steel. In its decision in China -- Countervailing and Anti-Dumping Duties on Grain Oriented Flat-rolled Steel from the United States (DS414), the panel found fault with the initiation of China’s CV investigation, which had determined that U.S. “Buy American” procurement provisions confer a subsidy, and the failure to provide public versions of documents, application of facts available, and injury determinations in China’s AD and CV investigations.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of June 14, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
The World Trade Organization issued the “Appellate Body Annual Report for 2011,” which details Appellate Body rulings this year, as well as dispute settlement procedures and statistics, among other things. According to the report, 5 out of 8 WTO panel reports adopted this year were appealed.
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the June 14 Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will appear in another ITT article):
HTC dropped an appeal at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of the International Trade Commission’s finding that Apple’s iPhones do not violate certain patents held by HTC. In February, the ITC had terminated the its investigation of certain portable electronic devices and related software (337-TA-721) with respect to Apple’s portable electronic devices that utilize certain power management methods and may incorporate hardware and software for telephone directories within mobile telephone systems. The investigation was one of many proceedings between Apple and HTC, including one that resulted in the issuance of a limited exclusion order against HTC phones in December 2011, and a recent patent complaint pending institution of an investigation filed by Apple against HTC on June 4.
On June 13 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of: