The Federal Maritime Commission awarded a $500,000 contract to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to study intermodal chassis pools and whether they can be made more efficient. The study, mandated by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, also will look at the advantages and disadvantages of current chassis pool models and whether the models “have aligned incentives in ownership, management, repair, and provisioning that lead to supply chain efficiency,” the FMC said. The study may result in suggestions to improve “communications, information sharing, and knowledge management practices across chassis pool models,” the commission said.
The Department of Labor's annual report on forced labor and child labor describes a global problem, from garments in Bangladesh, Brazil, Vietnam and Malaysia to tea and thread in India to gold from Venezuela, in addition to the sectors already associated with withhold release orders.
Linda Harris Crovella will serve as an administrative law judge of the Federal Maritime Commission, the FMC said this week. She previously served as an administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration. “The caseload of our Office of the Administrative Law Judge has sharply increased over the past two years resulting from more parties seeking relief to shipping disputes by using the formal complaints process,” FMC Chairman Daniel Maffei said. “Expanding the capabilities and resources of this critical function supports my priority that the Commission emphasize its enforcement work.”
The Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to control 4-piperidone as a list I chemical under the Controlled Substances Act. The chemical is used in the manufacture of fentanyl, DEA said. DEA is not proposing a threshold for domestic and international transactions for these chemicals, so “all transactions of chemical mixtures containing 4-piperidone will be regulated at any concentration and will be subject to control under the Controlled Substances Act,” the agency said. Comments are due Oct. 24.
The Federal Maritime Commission this week issued a notice that seeks public comments on the set of factors it should consider when determining whether an ocean carrier is violating shipping regulations by refusing vessel space to shippers. The FMC also seeks comments on how it should define “unreasonable” conduct by ocean carriers, specifically their “unreasonable refusal to deal or negotiate with respect to vessel space accommodation.” Comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking, which the FMC previewed last week (see 2209130040), are due Oct. 21.
U.S. rail companies and union negotiators this week agreed to avoid a labor strike that would have caused “catastrophic impacts on industries, travelers and families across the country,” the Department of Labor said Sept. 15. The two sides agreed to forego the strike, which was scheduled to begin at midnight Sept. 16, after 20 consecutive hours of negotiations, the agency said. The “tentative” deal for rail workers “balances the needs of workers, businesses and our nation’s economy.”
The Uyghur Human Rights Project, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, is asking shoppers at Asian and international supermarkets to watch out for red dates coming from Xinjiang, and to report the presence of those goods to CBP, as they violate the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.
The Federal Trade Commission seeks comments by Sept. 26 on a proposed settlement of Made in USA violations that would see Electrowarmth pay $815,809 to resolve charges that it labeled and advertised “bunk warmer” mattress pads for truck bunks as made in the U.S. when actually they were “in numerous instances” wholly imported from China, the FTC said in a notice. Under the settlement, Electrowarmth also would be required to identify and notify certain customers of the settlement within 30 days, the notice said. Electrowarmth also would have to file a compliance report within one year after the order becomes final, and notify the FTC within 14 days of certain changes that would affect compliance with the agreement.
The Federal Maritime Commission has made publicly available on its website its FY 2019 Service Contract Inventory Analysis, the agency said in a Federal Register notice. FMC said the analysis includes “Scope, Methodology, Findings, Actions Taken or Planned, and Accountable Officials.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service will remove two species from the endangered species list, after finding neither is a separate species eligible for listing, the FWS said in notices released Aug. 23. The agency said the plant Adiantum vivesii (no common name) is not a distinct species, but rather a sterile hybrid that does not have the capacity to establish a lineage that could be lost to extinction. The Braken Bat Cave meshweaver (Cicurina venii), an arachnid, is not a species separate from the Madla Cave meshweaver (Cicurina madla), and will remain subject to endangered species list protections under the latter’s listing, the FWS said. Both de-listings take effect Sept. 23.