Arun Venkataraman, the former assistant secretary of commerce for global markets, has joined Covington & Burling as a partner in the international trade practice, the firm announced. While at Commerce 2022-25, Venkataraman led efforts to "expand commercial opportunities for U.S. firms overseas and foreign firms in the United States," Covington said. In addition to his role as assistant secretary, Venkataraman served as director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service at the International Trade Administration. Prior to joining the Commerce Department, he worked at Visa as the senior director for global government engagement and at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative as director for India.
An Aug. 5 survey from the National Foreign Trade Council reveals concern among importers that current U.S. tariff policies are causing supply chain disruptions, inflating costs, and delaying planned projects.
The EU on Aug. 5 published a document to officially suspend the retaliatory tariffs it was set to impose on the U.S. on Aug. 7 (see 2507250007) if the two sides hadn’t come to a trade agreement. The U.S. and the EU announced a trade deal last last month (see 2507280027 and 2507280032), and suspending its retaliatory duties will help “ensure effective implementation of the political agreement,” the European Commission said in a document posted to the Official Journal of the EU. “The Commission should keep the suspension under review in light of further developments in the trade relations with the United States, and may take further actions.”
European Commission trade spokesperson Olof Gill, in a briefing in Brussels, said that the U.S. intention to allow some European steel to be imported without facing a 50% tariff will be in the forthcoming joint statement on the trade agreement. He said the work to set up the quota would follow.
The International Trade Commission seeks comments by Aug. 14 on a Section 337 complaint alleging that imports of smart television sets infringe patents held by Cerence Operating Company, it said in a notice to be published Aug. 6. According to the complaint, Cerence is seeking a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders against Sony, TCL Industries Holdings and their subsidiaries to bar from entry "certain smart televisions" that violate its patents. Cerence described its products as "televisions with smart features and functionality," which include a "virtual assistant software platform."
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Aug. 5 on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CVD rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
A domestic producer recently filed a petition with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting antidumping and countervailing duties be imposed on unwrought palladium imported from Russia. Commerce now will decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CVD orders and the assessment of AD and CVD on importers. Stillwater Mining Company and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, requested the investigation.
The Commerce Department has published the preliminary results of the antidumping duty administrative review on citric acid and certain citrate salts from Colombia (A-301-803). The agency calculated an AD rate of 4.69% for Sucroal S.A. Any changes to Sucroal's cash deposit rate would take effect on the publication date of the final results of this review, currently due in December. Once Commerce issues its final results, if there is no change from the preliminary results, the agency will assess AD for entries of subject merchandise from Sucroal at importer-specific rates for merchandise entered July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024.
On Aug. 4, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The FDA is proposing to amend the standard of identity for pasteurized orange juice by lowering the minimum orange juice soluble solids content from 10.5° to 10° Brix, it said in a notice released Aug. 5. The Brix measurement indicates the sugar content of a liquid.