The Food Safety and Inspection Service said the Regional Committee on North America & South West Pacific (CCNASWP) is requesting comments by June 22, 2012, on national food control systems, consumer participation in food standards setting, and the use of Codex standards at the national level. Details follow:
The Foreign Agriculture Service reports that private exporters reported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture export sales of 165,000 metric tons of soybeans to China during the 2012/2013 marketing year. The marketing year for soybeans began September 1.
The Farm Service Agency issued a notice specifying the fee schedule, effective April 4, 2012, for the new Export Food Aid Commodities (EFAC) licensing agreement offered by the FSA under the U.S. Warehouse Act (USWA). Agricultural products that may be stored under an EFAC licensing agreement include, but are not limited to, corn soy blend, vegetable oil, and pulses such as peas, beans, and lentils.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is seeking additional comments by May 10, 2012 on an existing information collection on the transfer of cargo to a container station. CBP is proposing to extend this information collection with no change to the burden hours or information collected.
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 April 6, 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.
During the week of April 2 through April 8, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration modified the following existing Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
Between March 21 and March 29, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
Between April 2 and April 6, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
Officials in the Food and Drug Administration’s China office say the Chinese are on their way to developing an infrastructure that better ensures product safety. The FDA said it has trained more than 1,600 Chinese manufacturers and regulators on U.S. safety standards over the past two years. Michael Kravchuk, who was deputy director in Beijing until he retired in September, says the FDA has built solid relationships with Chinese regulators and exporters since officially opening an office in Beijing in November 2008. The FDA held a hands-on workshop in the cities of Hangzhou and Zhoushan in September. The event included a half-day of classroom instruction and three full days of demonstrations at two plants that process low-acid canned foods such as mushrooms, sardines, artichoke hearts, and tuna.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 9, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows: