The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following voluntary recalls for January 18, 2012:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission will hold a public meeting on January 25, 2012 to continue its discussion on a proposed rule on infant swings that was considered during a January 18 meeting. The proposed rule would establish a mandatory consumer product safety standard based on the voluntary standard ASTM F2088-11b, “Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Infant Swings” with certain additions, modifications, and clarifications. A live webcast of the meeting will be available here. The vote on the proposed rule is now scheduled for February 2, 2012.

This is a reminder that comments are due January 23, 2012 on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's notice on ways to reduce the cost of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) third party testing requirements for children’s products that are consistent with assuring compliance with any applicable consumer product safety rule, ban, standard, or regulation. Based on the comments received, CPSC may prescribe new or revised third-party testing regulations.

The Office of Textiles and Apparel has issued monthly reports containing official November 2011 trade data from the Census Bureau for U.S. imports and exports of textiles and apparel.

On January 10, 2012, a Federal Judge preliminarily approved a proposed deal to settle a lawsuit filed by Florida and other Gulf Coast residents against a Chinese manufacturer who supplied drywall manufactured in 2005-2006 which residents allege caused health and metal corrosion problems in their homes. According to press reports, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Company has agreed to an uncapped fund to pay for repairing the damaged homes and a fund capped at $30 million to pay for other losses such as those arising from health problems.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a February 1, 2012 teleconference and the seventh meeting of the Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel (CHAP) on phthalates and phthalate substitutes. CPSC appointed this CHAP to study the effects on children’s health of all phthalates and phthalate alternatives, as used in children’s toys and child care articles, pursuant to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Its recommendations will be used to inform a future CPSC rulemaking on the topic, including which phthalates, combinations of phthalates, or phthalate alternatives should be prohibited from use in children’s toys or child care articles or otherwise restricted. The CHAP’s final report was expected by April 2012, but the panel asked for an additional six months to complete it. During the teleconference, the CHAP will discuss its progress toward completing its analysis. Interested members of the public may listen to but not participate in the teleconference.

In the January 13, 2012 Diario Oficial, Mexico's Ministry of Economy indicates that effective January 16, 2012, it will be allocating all of the Wool Tariff Preference Level for the U.S. market on a "first come, first serve" basis (previously, 90% of this wool TPL was allocated by a competitive bidding process). The Diario notice also indicates that the registration form number for Certificate of Eligibility for each shipment is SE-03-041-A (in 2010, it was listed as form number SE-03-013-2).

The Consumer Product Safety Commission published notice of the following additional voluntary recalls for January 12, 2012:

The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements has issued a notice announcing that interested entities can submit Offers to Supply by January 24, 2012, or provide a Rebuttal to an Offer by January 30, 2012, regarding a "commercial availability" request it received under the DR-CAFTA, on behalf of S. Rothchild & Co., Inc. for certain faux suede bonded to faux fur pile fabric.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a briefing package and a draft proposed rule that would require child-resistant packaging for any over-the-counter or prescription drug product containing the equivalent of 0.08 milligrams or more of an imidazoline (tetrahydrozoline, naphazoline, oxymetazoline, and xylometazoline) in a single package. Imidazolines are a family of drugs that are vasoconstrictors indicated for nasal congestion and/or ophthalmic irritation. The Commission is scheduled to vote on the draft proposed rule by January 18, 2012.