On July 11 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 July 11 that lists the status of recalls and field corrections for food, drugs, biologics, and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.
The Food and Drug Administration gave notice that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mexican Secretariat of Health entitled “The Safety and Sanitary Quality of Fresh and Frozen Molluscan Shellfish Exported from the United Mexican States to the United States of America.” The memorandum, which contains a few minor changes from the 2003 memorandum (extended by a 2008 exchange of letters) with the same subject and title, accepts Mexico as a participant in the U.S. National Shellfish Sanitation Program (NSSP) in exchange for compliance of the Mexican Shellfish Sanitation Program with the NSSP, among other things. The agreement went into effect June 28, and has a duration of 5 years.
On July 11 the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails July 11 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 several notices set to be published in the July 13 Federal Register,on 2 recently announced determinations of nonregulated status for certain genetically engineered products, as well as 9 petitions for nonregulated status and 3 petitions for nonregulated status and attached APHIS risk assessments.
The Bureau of Industry and Security submitted a proposed rule entitled “Amendment to Licensing Requirements for Exports to Canada of Shotguns, Shotgun Shells and Optical Sighting Devices under the Export Administration Regulations” for approval by the Office of Management and Budget on July 10. OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has 90 days to review the proposed rules, which may be extended on a one-time basis by 30 days.
The Census Bureau published a special edition of its TradeSource newsletter containing a “toolkit” of government resources available to help companies become successful exporters. The issue lists government programs, resources, and websites available to exporters when performing 9 key functions, such as finding buyers, export financing, understanding regulations, documentation and shipping, etc., and contains short descriptions of each item.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized 70 websites that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise by mimicking legitimate websites selling authentic merchandise and duping consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods that were imported from abroad, it said. According to ICE, Many of the websites so closely resembled the legitimate websites that it would be difficult for even the most discerning consumer to tell the difference.
The Agricultural Marketing Service announced the availability of its first “Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report” for westbound transpacific trade lanes at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.1. The report, to be released weekly, contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic from the 10 member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA)2, which determine container availability by comparing current supplies at each of the 18 intermodal locations with the demand for these containers based on up-to-date bookings or reservation information in the westbound transpacific trade lane. Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.