The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission began the five-year Sunset Reviews of the antidumping duty orders on 1-hydroxyethylidene-1, 1-diphosphonic (HEDP) Acid from China and India (A-570-934, A-533-847); frontseating service valves from China (A--570-933); malleable cast iron pipe fittings from China (A-570-881); steel threaded rod from China (A-570-932); and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) from China, Japan, and South Korea (A-570-879, A-588-861, A-580-850).
The Commerce Department announced the opportunity to request administrative reviews by March 31 for producers and exporters subject to 15 antidumping duty orders, five countervailing duty orders, and one suspended antidumping duty investigation with March anniversary dates.
The Commerce Department began administrative reviews for certain firms subject to antidumping and countervailing duty orders with January anniversary dates. The agency said it intends to issue the final results of these reviews by Jan. 31, 2015.
The Commerce Department found Gallant Dachan Seafood is the successor to Gallant Ocean (Quang Ngai) for the purposes of antidumping duty liability under the order on frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam (A-552-802), making Dachan eligible for the zero AD duty rate currently assigned Quang Ngai. Commerce made no changes from the preliminary results in the changed circumstances review (see 14010912), continuing to find the company underwent a simple name change. Quang Ngai was one of many companies assigned a zero rate in the final results of the most recently completed administrative review on shrimp from Vietnam (see 13091122).
Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on Feb. 27 the following voluntary recalls of imported products:
On Feb. 27 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The Food and Drug Administration issued its weekly Enforcement Report for Feb. 26 that lists the status of recalls and field corrections for food, drugs, biologics, and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.
On Feb. 27 the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports:
The Agricultural Marketing Service is relaxing size requirements on imported oranges to make up for a shortfall in orange production caused by a recent freeze in California and disease in Florida. Effective March 1, AMS will lower the minimum size for oranges shipped from the Lower Rio Grande Valley region of Texas from 2 6/16 inches to 2 3/16 inches. Because standards for fruits and vegetables must be the same for domestic and imported commodities, AMS is also applying the relaxed size requirements to shipments of imported oranges, it said. AMS is making the changes through an interim final rule, and will accept comments by April 29 before it decides whether to issue a final rule.
A Chilean shipping company has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $8.9 million in fines for its role in an international scheme to fix the prices of ocean shipping services for roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) cargo, said the Justice Department. According to charges filed Feb. 27 in the Maryland U.S. District Court, Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) engaged in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by allocating customers and routes, rigging bids and fixing prices for the sale of international ocean shipping services of inbound and outbound ro-ro cargo, such as cars and trucks, including at the Port of Baltimore. DOJ says CSAV participated in the conspiracy from at least January 2000 to September 2012. DOJ says the plea deal is the first in a wide-ranging investigation on price fixing of ocean shipping services.