FDA recently announced the creation of its online system for U.S. agents of registered food facilities. The agency’s U.S. Agent Voluntary Identification System, unveiled in a guidance document issued Oct. 16, will allow U.S. agents to identify the facilities for which they agree to serve as agents, and streamline the U.S. agent verification process for food facility registration.

An advance notice of proposed rulemaking on customs broker continuing education requirements (see 2009140033) is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on Oct. 28, said John Leonard, CBP executive director-trade policy and programs, during the virtual Western Cargo Conference on Oct. 23. The advance notice will be available for preview on the public inspection site on Oct. 27, he said. “It's a great ANPRM, if I do say so myself.”

The revision of the Customs chapter in U.S. Code Title 19, originally scheduled for next spring, will be delayed, the Office of the Law Revision Counsel said Oct. 19.

The FDA mistakenly added three foreign companies to Import Alert 99-41 recently for violations of Foreign Supplier Verification Program requirements, an agency spokesperson said. The additions were in error, and the agency is “taking steps to ensure future listings adhere to the intent of the import alert, which is to address an importer’s lack of compliance with the FSVP regulation,” the spokesperson said by email on Oct. 21.

Duties continue to be collected under the Section 232 tariffs on aluminum from Canada, despite a September Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announcement that the tariffs would end. Lauren Wilk, Aluminum Association vice president for policy and international trade, said Oct. 22 that a presidential proclamation or executive order rolling back the tariffs never came.

Grunfeld Desiderio counseled clients in the Section 301 litigation to consider a “sliding scale” of options on filing timely complaints within the two-year statute of limitations window that qualifies importers to recover duties paid if the suits are successful, partner Ned Marshak said in an Oct. 19 interview. The firm filed more than 800 of the nearly 3,600 complaints inundating the Court of International Trade. Its Sept. 16 complaint on behalf of YC Rubber was the first to follow Akin Gump's suit for lead plaintiff HMTX Industries.

A potential expansion of CBP authority under the Enforce and Protect Act that would apply to malfeasance beyond the evasion of antidumping or countervailing duties will be part of the agency's 21st Century Customs Framework discussion, CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner for International Trade Brenda Smith said during an Oct. 21 conference call with reporters. Smith last year mentioned the possibility of an expanded authority (see 1907240025). Currently, CBP uses the EAPA processes only to investigate AD/CV duty evasion.

International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from Oct. 13-16 in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that the trade facilitation agreement that the U.S. and Brazil signed Oct. 19 is very similar to the USMCA trade facilitation chapter, and that traders should expect more incremental progress in coming months. “There’s a lot more that needs to be done,” Lighthizer said during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce program Oct. 20. “We have ongoing negotiations on ethanol. Brazilians like to talk about sugar. There’s a variety of things in the agriculture area.”

Chief Judge Timothy Stanceu of the U.S. Court of International Trade should “automatically stay” all but the lead HMTX Industries-Jasco Products complaint in the Section 301 litigation and designate HMTX-Jasco as the “test case,” the Department of Justice said in an Oct. 19 motion to adopt case management procedures. All the nearly 3,600 complaints inundating the CIT seek to vacate the lists 3 and 4A tariff rulemakings and get the duties refunded. The roster of complaints attached to DOJ’s motion takes up 187 pages.