The National Organic Program is changing listings for several substances and renewing 200 others that were scheduled to expire this year for substances allowed or prohibited in organic agriculture, said the Department of Agriculture. The final results of the NOP’s 2012 five year sunset review, which was sent to the Federal Register, renews over 200 listings and makes changes to the following substances, among on the National List, said USDA (unless otherwise noted, all renewals and changes are effective June 27, 2012):
The Foreign Trade Zones Board is issuing the following notices for June 4, 2012:
Proposed revisions to the remaining U.S. Munitions List categories will be published in the next several months, said Eric Hirschhorn, Under Secretary of the Bureau of Industry and Security, at a May 10 discussion with European Defense Agency Chief Executive Claude-France Arnould in Brussels, Belgium. Hirschhorn also said the Obama administration is briefing members of Congress on the Defense and State Departments’ satellite report in the hope that it will pass legislation allowing satellite controls to be treated like other export control categories. Hirschhorn’s remarks were released by BIS June 1.
The Court of International Trade remanded the final results of the 2008-09 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet, and strip from China (A-570-924) for the International Trade Administration to reconsider surrogate values for certain inputs and to correct a clerical error. Specifically, CIT granted ITA’s request for a voluntary remand to address respondents Fuwei Films (Shandong) Co., Ltd. and Shaxoing Xiangyu Green Packing Co., Ltd.’s arguments regarding the surrogate value for the labor input, and also to correct a clerical error in Green’s per-unit water and electricity costs. Additionally, CIT agreed with respondents’ arguments and remanded the ITA’s use of a simple average of two HTS numbers (3907.60.20 and 3907.60.10) to obtain Indian value data for the ITA’s surrogate value for PET chips, the primary input for PET film.
The Court of International Trade dismissed Rack Room Shoes’ request for rehearing of its constitutionality challenge of certain tariff provisions of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) on the grounds that the tariffs unconstitutionally discriminate by gender and age.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's web site as of June 1, 2012, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://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.)
Mexico's Diario Oficial of June 1, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
China will implement the WTO’s rulings against Chinese export restraints on raw materials by December 31, 2012, according to the World Trade Organization. According to the WTO, China must implement the WTO Dispute Settlement Body’s rulings in China - Measures Related to the Exportation of Various Raw Materials (DS394, DS395, and DS398) by 10 months and 9 days from the February 22, 2012, date of adoption of the DSB’s recommendations and rulings.
China is challenging several aspects of U.S. countervailing duty proceedings before the World Trade Organization, including determinations of state ownership and control, treatment of Chinese export restraints as subsidies, and application of Adverse Facts Available (AFA), according to details of the May 25 Chinese request for consultations released by the WTO.
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the June 1, 2012, 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):