The Food and Drug Administration issued its weekly Enforcement Report for April 10 that lists the status of recalls and field corrections for food, drugs, biologics, and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service announced changes April 11 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 April 5-11:
The Grain Inspectors, Packers, and Stockyards Administration issued a final rule increasing its inspection and weighing fees for grain exports. The changes are effective May 1, and affect both local and national tonnage fees for all export grain shipments serviced by GIPSA field offices. According to GIPSA, the increase is necessary to cover program costs.
The Court of International Trade remanded part of the Commerce Department’s final determination from the antidumping duty investigation of polyvinyl alcohol from Taiwan (A-583-841) for the agency to explain the targeted dumping methodology used to find Chang Chun Petrochemical Co.’s AD rate. CCPC argued that Commerce applied the regulation on targeted dumping in effect at the time the investigation was completed in 2011, when it should have applied the targeted dumping rule in effect when the investigation began in 2004. The court said Commerce applied the right regulation, but didn’t apply it properly. The record indicated Commerce applied the regulation in effect in 2004, the court said, but Commerce failed to explain why it applied the targeted dumping methodology to all of CCPC’s sales, and why it eliminated transaction-to-transaction calculation methodology as an alternative to the normal method.
The Court of International Trade ruled that a Wisconsin company may be liable for $6.8 million in unpaid customs duties and related penalties because of its acquisition of the bankrupt entity that committed the alleged violations. Adaptive MicroSystems argued that its earlier acquisition of a company bearing the same name did not make it liable to respond to a penalty notice issued by CBP for the violations. At the time of the sale, the Wisconsin court that authorized the transaction said AMS wouldn’t assume its predecessor’s liabilities. CIT said it wouldn’t follow the Wisconsin court’s instruction, because the state court may have not known all of the facts, and ruled that AMS qualified for an exception to successor liability protections because a corporate officer and part owner of its predecessor also was an officer and part owner of AMS.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to CBP's website April 11, 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.)
The Drug Enforcement Administration finalized its tight restrictions on import and export of methylone, in a final rule placing the substance in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The designer drug, which is one of several substances sometimes labeled as “bath salts,” had been in Schedule I on a temporary basis since September 2011. The final rule is effective April 12.
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the April 11 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 voted April 10 to begin an investigation to determine whether imports of microelectromechanial systems are infringing patents held by STMicroelectronics in violation of Section 337. MEMS devices are used in portable electronics, power tools, remote controls, and video game controllers to enable these products to sense when they are being rotated, tilted, dropped, or moved in other ways by the user. STMicroelectronics filed its complaint March 11 (see 13031226), requesting limited exclusion and cease and desist orders against the following respondents: