The Food and Drug Administration needs more resources to finish implementing Food Safety Modernization Act programs and regulations, it said in a report to Congress. The report outlined FDA's FSMA mandates, as well as progress on implementation made to date. “The promise of FSMA to modernize the food safety in the U.S. and to significantly reduce the burden of foodborne illness cannot be realized without additional funding,” said Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, in remarks made in conjunction with the release the report.
On May 23, the Foreign Agricultural Service posted the following GAIN reports:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes May 23 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 Food Safety and Inspection Service revised export requirements and plant lists for the following countries for May 17-23:
A new guidance is now available on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point systems validation for small meat and poultry establishments, the Food Safety and Inspection Service said. The guidance (here) incorporates comments the agency received in response to a May 2012 draft guidance (see 12050904). FSIS is requesting comments on the updated version of its guidance by July 25. It will also hold a hearing on the guidance June 25 in Washington, D.C. Once finalized, the agenda for the hearing will be posted (here), FSIS said.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for May 24:
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements outlined the procedures it will follow in considering requests to impose U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement (PATPA) safeguard actions (in the form of higher duty rates) on textile and/or apparel products from Panama. The interim procedures are effective May 28, but CITA is asking for comments on the procedures by June 27. CITA said the safeguard is available when, as a result of the elimination of duties under PATPA, a Panamanian textile or apparel article benefiting from preferential tariff treatment is being imported into the U.S. in such increased quantities as to cause serious damage or the threat of damage to a U.S. industry producing a like or directly competitive article.
The Court of International Trade sent back to the Commerce Department its final results from the 2008-09 antidumping administrative review and new shipper review on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam (A-552-801). Commerce itself requested remands on several issues related to valuation of surrogate inputs. In response to challenges by domestic industry, CIT also remanded the agency’s selection of Bangladesh instead of the Philippines as the surrogate country, as well as allegations of ministerial errors.
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department’s decision to end an antidumping new shipper review for a Chinese company because of a single sale of subject merchandise produced by a manufacturer subject to the original investigation. Pujiang Talent Diamond Tools challenged the agency’s rescission of a new shipper review of diamond sawblades from China (A-570-900), arguing that, despite such a requirement in Commerce’s regulations, rescinding on the basis of a single sale went too far. But the court found that a decision by Commerce to go against its own regulations and not rescind wasn’t a choice the agency could make.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to CBP's website May 23, 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 addcvd.cbp.gov. (CBP occasionally adds backdated messages without otherwise indicating which message was added. ITT will include a message date in parentheses in such cases.)