USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has posted a Cut Flower Name Validation List to its website for filers to verify spellings in the APHIS core partner government agency (PGA) message set. The list provides genus, species and subspecies names along with corresponding common names to be used in the ACE data elements, APHIS said in a May 30 news release. The list also provides acceptable spellings for listed names and the corresponding Integrated Taxonomic Information Systems (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN) and APHIS ID (APID) number, APHIS said. Software developers can download and integrate the PG10 category AP0800 cut flowers into the Automated Broker Interface software, which will help create a single standardized submission list for importers of cut flowers, the agency said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
CBP will expand its preliminary hold notification benefit for Trade Compliance program members of the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) to include withhold release orders (WROs) and forced labor findings, the agency announced in a May 30 letter to CTPAT participants. Preliminary hold notifications were first offered as a benefit for Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) holds back in March (see 2304260045).
The Federal Maritime Commission last week approved a settlement agreement between U.S. metal trader CCMA and major ocean carrier Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). The confidential settlement stems from a December CCMA complaint alleging MSC assessed it $114,000 in unfair detention and demurrage fees (see 2212080020). MSC denied those allegations, saying CCMA lacked "meritorious factual basis" for its claims (see 2301090017).
CBP intends to distribute assessed antidumping or countervailing duties for fiscal year 2023 under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (CDSOA), it said in a notice. Certifications to obtain a continued dumping and subsidy offset under a particular AD/CVD order or finding must be received by July 31.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) is seeking comments by July 24 on a new data collection for "empty container volumes at intermodal locations," it said in a Federal Register notice. The data collection effort, which would implement certain parts of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, would allow the FMC to gather information on "vessel-level tonnage as well as full and empty containers entering and leaving U.S. ports." It would also allow the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) to collect "operational data on intermodal equipment and dwell times."
Orient Overseas Container Line denied allegations that it violated U.S. shipping regulations, saying a complaint filed by Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) in April (see 2305010049 and 2305020019) was "an unfortunate campaign to distort and obfuscate the relevant facts, contracts and law, in order to secure an unwarranted return." The container line said neither the statements in BBBY's complaint "nor the text of the contracts themselves" support claims that OOCL breached its contracts.
Correction: Apple, Burberry, Pfizer, the NBA and MLB are part of a data pilot under a memorandum of understanding between CBP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to prevent the importation of counterfeit and pirated goods (see 2105270024 and 2305190036).
Members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate introduced the Safeguarding American Value-Added Exports (SAVE) Act, which will amend the Agriculture Trade Act of 1978 to "include and define a list of common names for ag commodities, food products, and terms used in marketing and packaging of products," Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., announced in a press release last week. In addition, SAVE also will direct the secretary of agriculture and the U.S. trade representative to negotiate with "our foreign trading partners to defend the right to use common names for ag commodities in those same foreign markets," the press release said.