The Biden administration needs a more “credible, durable economic strategy” in the Indo-Pacific than the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, such as one that involves formal trade agreements, said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In a July 31 commentary for CSIS, Goodman, a former National Security Council official, said IPEF’s “greatest promise” is “as an incubator for new or revised provisions of a formal trade agreement in the Indo-Pacific region,” including one that includes new or updated chapters on labor, environment, digital standards, supply chain resilience and economic coercion.
Canada's International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) reached a new tentative labor agreement days after ILWU members voted against the previous tentative deal, ILWU Canada and BCMEA announced July 30. BCMEA said both sides are again "recommending ratification of the collective agreement to the union’s membership and member employers."
The Drug Enforcement Administration is updating its regulations to better align with the Designer Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2014, which added new labeling requirements for products containing anabolic steroids. The law’s labeling provision states that it’s illegal to import, export, manufacture, distribute or dispense -- “or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense” -- an anabolic steroid or product containing an anabolic steroid unless the product includes a label “clearly identifying the anabolic steroid or product containing an anabolic steroid by the nomenclature used by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.” DEA said it’s “simply updating its regulations to be consistent with the exact terms of DASCA.” The rule takes effect Aug. 1.
Rebecca Dye of the Federal Maritime Commission proposed new sets of best practices for ocean carriers and marine terminal operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Port of New York and New Jersey, covering activities surrounding container returns, earliest return dates and container pickups.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is amending its regulations on its procedures for seizures and forfeitures to make them "easier to understand using simpler language" and more clearly explain "the procedures used in administrative forfeiture proceedings," the agency said. The final rule, issued July 25, largely adopts changes proposed in 2016 (see 1606160030), with minor changes. Among other things, the changes make the seizure and forfeiture process "more efficient" and "more uniform with those of other agencies," the FWS said. The final rule takes effect Aug. 24.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is temporarily adding five synthetic benzodiazepines -- etizolam, flualprazolam, clonazolam, flubromazolam and diclazepam -- to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a notice July 26. The listings take effect July 26, and will be in effect for up to three years.
The Biden administration's trade agenda should focus less on protectionism and more on traditional trade agreements, said a former treasury secretary and U.S. trade representative during a July 25 event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is issuing a final rule listing the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl (Glaucidium brasilianum cactorum), a bird subspecies found in Mexico, southern Arizona and southern Texas, as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The listing includes a 4(d) rule for these species that prohibits importation and exportation without a permit. New import and export restrictions set by the agency’s final rule take effect Aug. 21.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the golden paintbrush (Castilleja levisecta), a flowering plant native to southwestern British Columbia, western Washington, and western Oregon, from the Endangered Species List, it said in a final rule released July 18. An FWS review indicated that “threats to the golden paintbrush have been eliminated or reduced to the point that the species no longer meets the definition of an endangered or threatened species," the agency said. The delisting takes effect Aug. 18.
The Federal Maritime Commission published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda and continued to mention several rules to implement the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, including a proposed rule to define unfair or unjustly discriminatory methods that violate U.S. shipping regulations. The FMC said it plans to issue that rule in December.