The Bureau of Industry and Security issued a final rule, effective April 25, 2012, which amends the Export Administration Regulations by adding two persons from France to the Entity List. This rule also removes 3 entries from the Entity List, adds 4 entries to the Entity List, and amends 17 entries to provide alternate addresses, alternate spelling of names, etc. on the basis of the BIS End-User Review Committee’s (ERC) annual review of the Entity List for 15 countries1.
On April 24, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 25, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
China's rare earth industry regulations are designed to protect the environment and sustain growth, said Zhu Hongren of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to a report by the official news agency Xinhua. Xinhua said Hongren pledged to actively respond to a request for consultations by the U.S., Japan, and the European Union at the World Trade Organization, and asserted that China’s measures to regulate its rare earth industry, including production caps, export quota cuts and stricter emission standards, are in line with WTO rules.
The Census Bureau announced that preliminary March steel imports were $3 billion (2.6 million metric tons compared to the preliminary February totals of $2.8 billion (2.4 million metric tons). According to Census, the March change in steel imports based on metric tonnage reflected an increase primarily in blooms, billets and slabs. An increase occurred primarily with Mexico; a decrease occurred primarily with India.
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the April 24, 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 U.S. said it was deeply troubled by what it described as lack of due process in China’s antidumping actions, and in particular the imposition last December of AD measures on imports of some $3 billion worth of U.S. automobiles, at a meeting of the World Trade Organization’s Meeting on Anti-Dumping Practices on April 23. The U.S. also said it was concerned on Mexican AD rate calculations, while Japan questioned 4 U.S. AD measures on Japanese products.
On April 24, 2012, the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports:
The Food Safety and Inspection Service said the Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR) is meeting April 23-28 in Shanghai. The Committee is considering proposed maximum residue limits, revision of the Codex Classification, etc. Details follow:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails April 24, 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.