The International Trade Commission voted to institute an investigation of certain integrated circuit chips and products containing them. The products at issue in this investigation are generally integrated circuit chips contained in hard disk drives, solid state drives, high-speed communications systems and interfaces, computer servers, data storage systems, controller boards and personal computers.
The International Trade Administration published notices in the Oct. 18 Federal Register on the following AD/CV proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
On Oct. 17 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 Oct. 17 that lists the status of recalls and field corrections for food, drugs, biologics, and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.
The Food and Drug Administration sent out warning letters to six foreign device manufacturing facilities, according to recent postings on the FDA website. Xiantao Rayxin Medical Products Co. Ltd. of China (here), DMC Medical Technology & Manufacturing Co., Ltd. of China (here), and EPS Biotechnology Corp. of Taiwan (here) were each sent warning letters for deviations from current good manufacturing practice (CGMP) requirements of FDA’s quality system regulations. Accordingly, FDA said the offending products were adulterated. Warning letters sent to Nissei Precision Instruments (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. of China (here), Copious International, Inc. of Taiwan (here), and SMT-Schilling Metalltechnik GmbH of Germany (here) not only detailed CGMP violations by each firm, but also said the firms failed to meet medical device reporting requirements because they failed or refused to provide required information to FDA. As a result, certain products manufactured by Nissei, Copious, and SMT-Schilling were found to be both adulterated and misbranded by FDA.
On Oct. 17 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes Oct. 17 to Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of Oct. 17-23. The weekly report contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.1 from the eight member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA).2 Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.
Micei International of Macedonia will maintain its export privileges, but must implement an export compliance program and conduct audits of its compliance with the Export Administration Regulations, according a settlement agreement with the Bureau of Industry and Security. Micei’s export privileges had been denied in 2009 because of its dealings with a person listed on the Denied Persons List. The denial order took effect in May 2009, but was stayed in July 2009 because of a district court challenge of the order brought by Micei. As part of the agreement, both BIS and Micei will jointly submit a motion to the court to dismiss the case with prejudice.
A former American Airlines baggage handler was sentenced to life in prison Oct. 16 for his leadership of an international drug trafficking organization, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Victor Bourne led an organization that smuggled narcotics from the Caribbean into the United States through John F. Kennedy International Airport, ICE said. Bourne was convicted in October 2011.