The Commerce Department has released the final results of the countervailing duty administrative review on pasta from Italy (C-475-819). Rates set in these final results will be used for final assessments of CV duties on importers for subject merchandise entered in calendar year 2021.
The Commerce Department is amending the final results released in December of the antidumping duty administrative review on large diameter welded pipe from Canada (A-122-863). Based on comments received after publication of the final results on Dec. 13, Commerce determined that it made a ministerial error in a calculation, with the result being that there was no dumping of subject merchandise during the review period May 1, 2021, through April 30, 2022.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission released a direct final rule Jan. 17 amending its safety standard for toys to incorporate the latest revisions to the ASTM voluntary industry standard, it said. The changes are effective April 20, unless CPSC receives a “significant adverse” comment by Feb 20.
On Jan. 16, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
A scheduled FDA upgrade of its import operations database will lead to an outage from 10 p.m. Jan. 20 to 5 a.m. Jan. 21 EST, CBP said Jan. 17. This will affect the Interoperability Web Service (IWS), the FDA Import Trade Auxiliary Communications Systems (ITACS) and prior notice applications, except the Prior Notice System Interface (PNSI), the agency said in a CSMS message.
The FDA posted a document showing the information needed "for successful filing of Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS) products," CBP said in a CSMS message Jan. 17. The information needs to be provided to the customs broker on the shipment in order to avoid a delay of an FDA admissibility determination, CBP said. "*Please share this resource with your customs broker," the FDA said.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service intends to allow imports of fresh thyme, marjoram and oregano from Kenya, it said in a notice Jan. 17. 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” with the importation of the fresh herbs, APHIS said. If APHIS finalizes the decision, it will allow imports into the U.S., subject to the phytosanitary requirements specified by the agency. Comments will be accepted through March 18.
Both Asian countries and American businesses had hoped that the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework could be a step on the road to lowering tariffs, trade experts said during a webinar on the future of IPEF, but now they're wondering if there will be any economically significant effect at all from talks about trade facilitation, green transition and supply chain resilience.
Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Ill., reintroduced a bill that would add digital trade policies to the eligibility criteria for the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program. He first introduced the bill in 2021 (see 2105100012).
The House of Representatives voted 403-9 to create a position of global trade specialist, consolidating several existing positions, including import specialist and drawback specialist.