Hong Kong-based Sterling Container Line violated U.S. shipping regulations when it refused to pay Florida-based SeaFair USA for its “document turnover” services for shipments carried under Sterling’s house bills of lading, SeaFair said in a Dec. 15 complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission. SeaFair said Sterling owes it more than $400,000 and asked the FMC to order Sterling to pay reparations and “cease and desist” from their “unlawful conduct.”

The Institute for Policy Studies, a nonprofit critic of globalization, war, and human rights abuses around the globe, hosted an event that questioned the ability of trade to help advance the green transition needed to prevent uncontrolled global warming.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in two final rules listed a plant and a tree as endangered and threatened, respectively. A final rule published Dec. 15 lists the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a high-elevation tree species found across western North America, as threatened, with a 4(d) rule that prohibits importation and exportation without a permit. Another released Dec. 15 lists the Tiehm’s buckwheat (Eriogonum tiehmii), a plant species native to Nevada, as endangered. New import and export restrictions set by the agency’s final rules take effect Jan. 17.

The Fish and Wildlife Service on Dec. 12 released a final rule listing the Dolphin and Union caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus × peary), a distinct population segment of the barren-ground caribou native to Canada, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. New import and export restrictions set by the agency’s final rule take effect Jan. 12.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is listing methiopropamine, a central nervous stimulant that is structurally related to the schedule II stimulants methamphetamine and amphetamine, under schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a notice released Dec. 8. “This action imposes the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule I controlled substances on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities or chemical analysis with, or possess) or propose to handle methiopropamine," DEA said. The listing takes effect Jan. 9.

The Federal Maritime Commission this week announced new interim procedures for shippers, forwarders and others filing charge complaints for alleged violations of U.S. shipping regulations. The new procedures will help the FMC “take prompt action” to adjudicate complaints and guide the commission as it works to create a permanent filing process, which will be established through a future rulemaking.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is issuing a final rule listing the Puerto Rican harlequin butterfly (Atlantea tulita) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The listing includes a 4(d) rule for this species that prohibits importation and exportation without a permit. New import and export restrictions set by the agency’s final rule take effect Jan. 3.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is setting 2023 quotas for the manufacture and importation of controlled substances in Schedules I and II of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a notice released Nov. 30. Substances not listed in the table included in DEA's notice will have a quota of zero. DEA is also setting quotas for the List I chemicals ephedrine, phenylpropanolamine and pseudoephedrine.

The Federal Maritime Commission issued a draft “Finding of No Significant Impact” for its recent proposed demurrage and detention billing requirements (see 2210070079), the agency said in a notice released last week. The finding will become final within 10 days of the notice’s publication in the Federal Register "unless a petition for review is filed," the FMC said. Petitions for review must be submitted on or before Dec. 9.

MSC, one of the world’s leading container shipping lines, denied allegations made by a logistics company that it violated the Shipping Act, saying this week that the company’s October complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission (see 2210260029) was “so vague and ambiguous as to make it impractical” to “submit a reasonable answer.” MSC said it didn’t fail to provide adequate time to return containers for U.S.-based MVM Logistics and denied a host of other allegations by the company, including that it committed unfair shipping and handling practices that MVM said left it with $800,000 in fines.