The Commerce Department is expanding its ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty administrative reviews on quartz surface products from China (A-570-084/C-570-085), and may review the eligibility of some Malaysian companies that are currently ineligible to certify their goods are exempt because they aren’t Chinese, it said in a notice released Feb. 23.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the following voluntary recalls Feb. 22:
On Feb. 22, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation announced Feb. 22 that Special Import Quota #19 for upland cotton will be established Feb. 29, allowing importation of 6,540,756 kilograms (30,041 bales) of upland cotton, the same as the previous quota period. The quota will apply to upland cotton purchased not later than May 28, 2024, and entered into the U.S. by Aug. 26, 2024. The quota is equivalent to one week's consumption of cotton by domestic mills at the seasonally adjusted average rate for the October through December 2023 period, the most recent three months for which data is available.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of fresh ugu leaves from Nigeria, it said in a notice. An agency pest risk analysis found “the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures will be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds,” APHIS said. Imports may be authorized beginning Feb. 26, it said.
The Foreign-Trade Zones Board issued the following notices on Feb. 23:
The Treasury Department posted new FAQs to its website on recently announced, additional bans on imports of diamonds from Russia (see 2402080081). One FAQ details a ban on imports of diamond jewelry and unsorted diamonds that originate or were exported from Russia that will take effect March 1. Another FAQ includes information on bans of non-industrial diamonds mined or produced in Russia that have been substantially transformed in other countries. That ban takes effect March 1 for diamonds with a weight of one carat or more, and Sept. 1 for smaller diamonds of 0.5 carat or more. A third FAQ details the actions Treasury has taken since 2022 to restrict imports of diamonds from Russia.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said the Strengthen Wood Product Supply Chains Act (see 2402140043) would "significantly undermine Lacey Act enforcement efforts targeting the illegal trade in timber, wood products, and wildlife."
Sens. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., have sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai urging them to take action to “immediately and meaningfully limit the volume of Mexican steel concrete reinforcing bar (rebar) being imported into the United States.”
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Feb. 22, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.