The Food and Drug Administration is extending until July 30 the period for comments on its proposed rule on the sanitary transportation of human and animal food. The proposed regulations issued under the Food Safety Modernization Act in February would apply to shippers, receivers, and carriers that transport human or animal food by truck or rail, including parties engaged in the international shipment of food in some circumstances (see 14020301). If an international shipper or carrier is subject to the rule and fails to comply, the food shipment would be refused entry into the U.S., said FDA in its proposed rule. FDA is extending the deadline because of requests from industry. Under a court settlement, FDA’s final rule on sanitary transportation is due March 31, 2016.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service posted revised guidelines on shipments of seed potatoes between Canada and the United States (here). The changes to its 2009 “Guidelines on Surveillance and Phytosanitary Actions for the Potato Cyst Nematodes Globodera rostochiensis and Globodera pallid” include a reduction in the amount of soil sampling and testing that is required to ship seed potatoes between Canada and the U.S., as well as adjustments to the process for releasing regulated agricultural land and for deregulating fields no longer used for agriculture. APHIS says the changes are already in effect.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for May 22:
Three former longshoremen pleaded guilty May 21 to extorting “Christmastime tributes” from their fellow members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) in New Jersey, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey. Salvatore LaGrasso, Michael Nicolosi, and Julio Porrao admitted that they compelled the payments from ILA union members by using actual and threatened force, violence and fear, said the attorney’s office. The timing of the extortions typically coincided with the receipt by certain ILA members of Container Royalty Fund checks, it said.
The Court of International Trade ruled on May 21 that an importer’s lawsuit related to seized and excluded entries of apparel should be decided by a U.S. District Court, but stayed the case because some issues may still be left unresolved. The court found the case to be a seizure case at heart, which means it’s outside of the court’s jurisdiction. But issues related to the deemed exclusion of the merchandise mean the court may still decide aspects of the case once the seizure issue is resolved. CIT also ruled on when presentation of merchandise takes place, agreeing with CBP that it occurs when a shipment is taken for physical inspection by CBP, and not the time an entry is filed.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website May 21, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the May 21 Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department published notices in the May 21 Federal Register on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department issued the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on activated carbon from China (A-570-904). The agency calculated preliminary AD rates for two companies, Jacobi Carbons and Cherishmet, and preliminarily assigned an average of those rates to eight others..
The Commerce Department issued the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on solid fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate from Russia (A-821-811). The agency preliminarily calculated zero percent AD duty rates for JSC Acron and MCC EuroChem. If the agency's finding is continued in the final results, ammonium nitrate from these companies entered between April 2012 and March 2013 will not be assessed AD duties, and future entries from these companies will not be subject to an AD duty cash deposit requirements until further notice.