The Food and Drug Administration will continue its policy of enforcement discretion for food facilities that have co-manufacturing agreements with brand owners and must comply with certain Food Safety Modernization Act requirements for supply-chain programs, it said in a Nov. 6 constituent update. The policy was set to end Nov. 6, but FDA has "learned of additional challenges industry is facing in trying to meet the supply-chain requirements," it said. Under the policy, FDA is not taking enforcement action against co-manufacturers that are not in compliance with certain supply-chain program requirements related to supplier approval and supplier verification. Industry has expressed concerns that confidentiality clauses in existing contracts prevent co-manufacturers from obtaining information about suppliers. FDA did not say for how long the policy would be extended, but said it would soon announce the extension in the Federal Register.
The Food and Drug Administration is proposing a new accreditation scheme for food testing laboratories that would require importers to use accredited laboratories in some circumstances, including getting food they import off import alerts and proving admissibility of food that is initially refused admission.
No lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade, and no appeals of CIT decisions were filed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, during the week of Oct. 28 - Nov. 3.
The International Trade Commission issued Revision 16 to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. Changes in the new edition that take effect Nov. 1 include the restoration of eligibility of many Ukrainian goods for the Generalized System of Preferences, as well as implementation of the results of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s 2019 GSP product review, which also requires minor changes to tariff subheadings for certain plywood. A new set of exclusions from Section 301 tariffs on products from China are also added to the tariff schedule.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 21-27:
The International Trade Commission has issued Revision 15 to the 2019 Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The only substantive change from the previous HTS edition is the removal of an exemption from solar cells safeguard duties for double-sided solar panels, as announced by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in early October (see 1910080054).
Window shutters manufactured in the Dominican Republic from Chinese aluminum extrusions are still subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968), the Commerce Department said in a scope ruling filed Oct. 16. The agency found that the processing in the Dominican Republic was minor, and the Chinese parts did not undergo a substantial transformation conferring Dominican origin.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 14-20:
A Canadian man faces up to a year in prison after pleading guilty Oct. 18 to importing fish into the U.S. that had already been refused entry, the Department of Justice said in a press release. John Heras and his company, the seafood wholesaler Seven Seas Fish Company, admitted that between October 2014 and August 2015, they imported more than 9,000 pounds of potentially adulterated fish into the U.S. that had already been refused admission by the Food and Drug Administration because the fish was too decomposed and putrid, DOJ said.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- CBP has “kicked off” an industry task force on customs broker continuing education requirements, and is committed to 2020 “being the year that we will tackle continuing education together” with the trade community, said Cynthia Whittenburg, deputy executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s trade office, at the Western Cargo Conference (Wesccon) on Oct. 11.