The International Trade Administration issued the preliminary results of its antidumping administrative review of stainless steel bar from India (A-533-810) for Ambica Steels Limited. The ITA calculated a preliminary zero AD rate for the company. It also rescinded this review with respect to Mukand, Ltd. because of a withdrawal of requests for review. If the ITA continues to find a zero AD rate for Ambica in the final results, it will instruct CBP to liquidate entries of Ambica's subject merchandise during the period of review without regard to AD duties. These preliminary results are not in effect. The ITA may modify them in the final results of this review and change the estimated AD cash deposit rate for this company.
On Jan. 30 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 Jan. 30 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 Jan. 30 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 Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements determined that certain cotton/polyester three-thread circular knit fleece fabric is not available in commercial quantities in Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement countries, and is adding the fabric to the CAFTA-DR to the list at Annex 3.25 of the agreement in unrestricted quantities. This fabric may now be sourced from outside CAFTA-DR countries for use in CAFTA-DR qualifying textile and apparel products. Intradeco Apparel asked for the commercial availability determination, and no interested parties responded to the request. Specifications for the fabric are as follows:
The Bureau of Industry and Security posted comments it received on its proposed rule to move military electronics equipment and related items from the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List. Several commenters expressed concern over the inclusion in more restrictive “600 series’ ECCNs of items that also have civilian applications. Some comments also addressed the issue of the "specially designed" definition.
Eagle Metals Distributors and Evergreen Solar appealed the Court of International Trade’s November decision affirming the all others rate from the countervailing duty investigation of aluminum extrusions from China. Eagle and Evergreen, two U.S. importers, had challenged the International Trade Administration’s calculation of the all others rate relying all available subsidy programs in China and 100% usage of those programs. On remand, CIT affirmed the ITA’s reliance of only some subsidy programs. The court also affirmed the usage rates for the subsidy programs, despite objections from Eagle and Evergreen, among others, that such high usage rates weren’t realistic.
R.T. Foods appealed a Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification case that resulted in its tempura battered vegetables being classified as vegetable preparations, dutiable at 11.2 percent, instead of as duty-free food preparations. The Court of International Trade said "vegetable preparations" specifically describes the product, which means it can’t fall into the “other” food preparations category. CIT’s ruling only applied to three of the 24 entries R.T. Foods had challenged, because the company waited too long to file its court challenge of 10 entries for which protests were denied, and lacked standing to challenge another 11 entries on constitutional grounds.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to CBP's website Jan. 30, 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.)
CBP reminded importers that the period for Food and Drug Administration food facility registration renewal ends Jan. 31. Beginning Feb. 1, if a foreign food facility is required to register with the Food and Drug Administration, but fails to do so, food from that facility that is being imported or offered for import into the U.S. is subject to import refusal. Food facility registrations (FFRs) that are not renewed by Jan. 31 will be subject to invalidation of registration and could result in food shipments manufactured by those facilities without valid registrations to be held at the port or refused upon arrival in the U.S., said CBP in a CSMS message.