The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the Dec. 17 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 Administration published notices in the Dec. 17 Federal Register on the following AD/CV proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
On Dec. 14 the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
On Dec. 14 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service updated its policy for importing shipments of coconut seeds for planting. Effective Jan. 1, APHIS will no longer offer the option to recondition sprouted coconut seeds for planting. Coconut seed shipments that have sprouted at the time of inspection will be refused entry, APHIS said. More information is available here.
The Italian regions of Lombardia, Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, and Piemonte, and the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano are free of swine vesicular disease (SVD), said the Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Service, so requirements for importing pork and pork products and swine may be relaxed. APHIS is asking for comments by Feb. 19 on its determination, which will be available on regulations.gov in docket number APHIS-2012-0094-0001. APHIS also found that because of these regions’ proximity to other SVD-affected regions, additional restrictions will be necessary, it said.
The International Trade Administration is extending the deadline for applications to its International Buyer Program (IBP) until Dec. 21. Through the IBP, the ITA selects domestic trade shows that will receive ITA assistance in the form of global promotion in foreign markets, providing export counseling to exhibitors, and providing export counseling and matchmaking services at the trade show. The application deadline was originally Dec. 10.
The Court of International Trade affirmed CBP’s Harmonized Tariff Schedule classification of R.T. Foods’ tempura vegetables from Thailand as vegetable preparations in Chapter 20, rather than as miscellaneous edible preparations in Chapter 21. CBP’s classification as vegetables specifically described the product, so it could not instead be classified in R.T. Foods’ preferred catch-all edible preparations provision, CIT said.
The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of Dec. 12-18. The weekly report contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.1 from the eight member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA).2 Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of Dec. 14, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows: