The International Trade Commission voted to institute an investigation of certain consumer electronics and display devices and products containing same (337-TA-836). The products at issue in this investigation include cellular telephones, personal computers, home theater audio and video components, televisions and gaming and media devices.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is revising the voluntary U.S. Standards for Grades of Cultivated Ginseng, effective May 7, 2012. To ensure the integrity of the Standards, the revisions will be based on quality and percentage defects. The new grades will replace the current ones and promote the orderly and efficient marketing of ginseng. Other changes will include a revised General Section, new tolerances, reclassified sizes, removed table “values” and amended definitions.
The Agricultural Marketing Service issued a final rule amending the procedures for determining the official leaf grade for Upland and Pima cotton, effective April 6, 2012. The leaf grade is part of the official classification which denotes cotton fiber quality used in cotton marketing and manufacturing of cotton products. Previously, the leaf grade was determined by visual examination and comparison to the Universal Cotton Standards for Leaf Grade that serves as the official cotton standards by qualified cotton classers. Amended procedures replace the classer’s leaf determination with the instrument leaf measurement made by the High Volume Instrument (HVI) system, which has been used in official cotton classification for Upland Cotton since 1991.
The Court of International Trade found that the International Trade Administration failed to comply with the CIT’s instructions in the ITA’s remand redetermination of final results of the 2007 administrative review of wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-570-890). Specifically, the CIT found that the ITA did not reconsider or further explain the China-wide rate of 216.01% assigned to Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. or the ITA's choice of weight-based data to determine the surrogate value for wood inputs. The CIT has now remanded these issues for a second time.
Representatives of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada discussed regulatory and sectoral cooperation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), trade facilitation through the liberalization on rules of origin, and Mexican and Canadian participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations at a meeting of the Free Trade Commission of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexican and Canadian ministers, as well as U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, agreed on, among other things: (i) a fourth package of liberalization of NAFTA rules of origin; (ii) a sectoral plan for chemical products; and (iii) pursuing the elimination of unnecessary barriers and costs for SMEs.
The World Trade Organization Appellate Body upheld the panel’s finding that a U.S. ban on the sale and production of clove cigarettes is inconsistent with U.S. WTO obligations. The provision at issue, Section 907(a)(1)(A) to the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, which prohibits the production or sale in the U.S. of cigarettes containing certain additives including clove, was challenged at the WTO by Indonesia and eight third parties1 in United States -- Measures Affecting the Production and Sale of Clove Cigarettes (DS406).
Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 4, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry selected three successful Japanese applicants for the Smart House International Standardization Research Program. Under this Program, METI will conduct technological verifications needed for the harmonization of smart house standards in Japan and those under development in the U.S. and for the establishment of international standards for energy management systems as the basis of smart house.
Japanese total steel demand is forecast to decline by 2.3% in the 1st quarter of Japan’s fiscal year 2012 (April-June), as compared to the previous quarter, by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Steel demand in the construction sector is forecast to decline due to seasonal factors, while the manufacturing sector is forecast to see a decline in steel demand due to seasonal factors and a slowdown in shipbuilding work. METI expects steel exports to increase in Q1 of Japanese FY 2012 thanks to the recovery from the impact of the Thai floods and progress in inventory adjustment among overseas customers.
An official joint report on a potential free trade agreement (FTA) between Japan, China, and South Korea was released by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The Joint Study Report, which built on the Trilateral Joint Research Project conducted from 2003 to 2009, was requested by the leaders of three countries during the October 2009 Trilateral Summit in Beijing, China, and was compiled by a committee composed of government officials, business and academic participants from these three countries during seven meetings held by the committee between May 2010 and December 2011. The results will be reported to the leaders of Japan, China, and Korea at the Trilateral Summit between these countries in 2012. METI press release (dated 03/30/12) announcing availability of the report available here.