The Agricultural Marketing Service is increasing its fees for voluntary federal dairy grading and inspection services. The final rule will increase fees by 10 percent effective Aug. 1, 2013, and another 10 percent in February 2014. Fees applicable to EU Health Certification Program derogation requests are unchanged, it said. AMS said the fee increases are necessary to cover the costs of the program, which must be entirely financed by user fees.
The Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau is asking for comments by Aug. 26 on a proposal to update its regulations on denatured alcohol. The proposed rule would reclassify some spirits from “specially denatured alcohol” (SDA) into the less-restrictive “completely denatured alcohol” (CDA) category. It would remove some SDA formulas, and create new general uses for others. TTB’s proposed rule would also amend some general provisions of TTB’s denatured alcohol regulations, including sections on labeling and export. According to TTB, “the proposed amendments would remove unnecessary regulatory burdens on the industrial alcohol industry as well as TTB, and would align the regulations with current industry practice.”
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau extended the duration of tobacco and processed tobacco import permits from three to five years, as part of a reissue of parts of its tobacco regulations. All current holders of three-year permits must reapply for the new five-year permits, TTB said. The “temporary” final rule, which is effective Aug. 26, incorporates two 1999 TTB rules on tobacco marking and labeling and importer permits, as well as subsequent amendments, and makes “technical changes” throughout.
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) only made up about a quarter of the domestic companies that petitioned for antidumping and countervailing duties from 2007 to 2012, said a June 25 Government Accountability Office report. Only about a third of AD/CVD petitions during that time included an SME, the report said. According to GAO, small businesses are discouraged from involvement because of high legal costs, difficulties in obtaining necessary data, and the sometimes formidable challenge of assembling a large enough coalition to demonstrate industry support.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of June 25 lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the June 25 Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will appear in another ITT article):
The International Trade Commission is beginning a pilot program to test whether early decisions on pivotal questions in Section 337 cases would expedite its investigations. Under the pilot, announced June 24, the administrative law judge would make an early initial determination (ID) on a key issue, like whether a domestic industry practices a patent, within 100 days of the beginning of the investigation. The early decisions on dispositive issues “could limit unnecessary litigation, saving time and costs for all parties involved,” the ITC said.
On June 24 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
During the week of June 17-23, the Food and Drug Administration modified the following existing Import Alert (not otherwise listed on the FDA's new and revised import alerts page) on the detention without physical examination and/or surveillance of:
On June 24, the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports: