The Foreign Trade Zones Board is issuing the following notices for April 17, 2012:
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the April 17, 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):
The International Trade Commission said it will not review the administrative law judge's(ALJ) finding of violations of section 337 in the importation into the U.S., the sale for importation, and the sale within the U.S. after importation of certain handbags, luggage, accessories, and packaging thereof, by reason of infringement of trademarks held by Louis Vuitton Malletier S.A. of France and Louis Vuitton U.S. Manufacturing, Inc. of San Dimas, CA (337-TA-754). The ALJ's initial determination also recommended that the ITC issue a general exclusion order and set a bond of 100% during the period of Presidential review.
The International Trade Commission voted to institute an investigation of certain food waste disposers and components and packaging thereof (337-TA-838). The products at issue in this investigation are undersink-mounted food waste disposers.
From April 11 to April 13, 2012, the Foreign Agriculture Service issued the following GAIN reports:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails April 16, 2012, announcing changes to some 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 Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued a final rule, effective May 17, 2012, amending the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow the import into the continental U.S. of pomegranates from Chile, subject to a systems approach.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is requesting comments by July 31, 2012, on a Status Review Report and a draft Management Report prepared by the NOAA in response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to list 83 coral species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments by June 18, 2012, on a proposed rule that would amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by (i) adding a requirement for persons shipping under Authorization Validated End-User to send written notice of such shipments to the recipient VEU; (ii) saying that item-specific conditions under Authorization VEU no longer apply when such items no longer require licenses or become eligible under a license exception; and (iii) for such items, VEUs are still subject to the recordkeeping requirements for items shipped before removal of the license requirement or addition of the license exception.
This is a reminder that, as set forth in its February 14, 2012 final rule, the International Trade Administration will calculate antidumping rates in a manner which provides offsets for non-dumped comparisons (i.e., no “zeroing”) while adopting a new monthly average-to-average calculation methodology as its default practice, for all administrative reviews where the preliminary results are issued after April 16, 2012. Note that this elimination of zeroing is a matter of policy; the amended regulations do not specify the provision of offsets. Furthermore, alternative methodologies may still be utilized by ITA in exceptional circumstances, although the ITA does not specify what these circumstances may be.