The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes June 19 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 Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation announced Special Import Quota #19 for upland cotton that will be established on June 26, allowing importation of 14,941,776 kilograms (68,627 bales) of upland cotton. It will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than Sept. 23, and entered into the U.S. by Dec. 22. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally-adjusted average rate for the period October 2013 through December 2013, the most recent three months for which data are available.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for June 20:
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website June 19, 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 is asking for comments by July 7 on public interest factors it should consider as it decides whether to issue limited exclusion orders banning imports of some Nokia and ZTE devices. The ITC began its investigation on wireless devices with 3G or 4G capabilities in January 2013 in response to a request from InterDigital, which alleged patent infringement by way of imports of Nokia’s Lumia 822 and 920 and ZTE’s ZTE Avail, JetPack, and 4G Hotspot, among other devices. An administrative law judge on June 13 recommended issuing limited exclusion orders against Nokia and ZTE, as well as a cease and desist order against Nokia, should the commission find a violation of Section 337. The judge also recommended implementation of any limited exclusion orders be delayed by six months.
The Commerce Department issued the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on magnesium metal from China (A-570-896). Commerce continued to find the only respondent, Tianjin Magnesium International, Co., Ltd. (TMI), had no shipments of subject merchandise to the U.S. during the period of review. As such, TMI's AD cash deposit rate will remain at rate set for TMI in the most recent prior administrative review.
The Commerce Department issued the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on ball bearings and parts thereof from Japan (A-588-804) and the United Kingdom (A-412-801). Commerce found that all of the 39 companies under review did not dump subject merchandise, and assigned them zero percent AD duty rates. These final results will be used to set final assessments of AD duties on importers for entries between May 2009 and April 2010. These AD duty orders have been revoked, so entries of ball bearings from Japan and the UK are no longer subject to cash deposit requirements.
The Commerce Department amended its final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China (A-570-970) in order to correct errors it made in its calculations. Armstrong and Minglin will continue to get zero AD duty rates, but rates for Fine Furniture and the 69 "average rate" companies will rise to 5.92%. The new rates take effect June 20.
Consumer Product Safety Commission announced on June 18 the following voluntary recalls of imported products:
On June 18 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of: