The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said the FDA needs to address a few remaining issues in its recently issued guidance document on upcoming cosmetics registration and product listing requirements.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service will allow imports of fresh bell peppers to resume, after prohibiting them in December 2022 based on the detections of the Mediterranean fruit fly, APHIS said in an amended federal order issued Jan. 19. “Effective immediately,” bell peppers (Capsicum annuum) may be imported from Spain “under the import requirements currently listed in the Agricultural Commodity Import Requirements (ACIR) database” as well as “corrective actions” listed in the amended federal order, including reinforcing and strengthening Spanish greenhouses and inspections following severe weather. APHIS said tears in the plastic of Spanish greenhouses allowed the pests to contaminate the shipments and caused the detections that led to the ban.
The Foreign-Trade Zones Board issued the following notices on Jan. 22:
The National Marine Fisheries Service made a new comparability finding that two New Zealand fisheries have comparable marine mammal bycatch protections to U.S. fisheries, and may be listed on the agency’s List of Foreign Fisheries eligible for import into the U.S., NMFS said in a notice released Jan. 22.
For the second time, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative asked the Mexican government to investigate whether service center workers were being denied their right to form a union, under the rapid response labor mechanism in the USMCA.
The senators from Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana asked the commerce secretary to reverse a preliminary decision to reduce the "Vietnam-wide" antidumping rate for Vietnamese catfish exporters that haven't been assigned their own rate to 14 cents per kilogram, from a previous $2.39/kg rate.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website Jan. 19, 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.
The CBP Port of Detroit Cashier Office will close on Jan. 23 due to weather conditions in Detroit, CBP said in a CSMS message on Jan. 22. If a filer is not able to comply with a deadline because of the weather conditions in Detroit, they should contact their client representative, CBP said. CBP "will take into account" difficulties caused by the weather when deciding if they should "pursue liquidated damages" for late filings and deposits, the agency said.
Many goods denied entry into the U.S. under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act are not actually goods made with forced labor, but that doesn't stop UFLPA-detained goods from being stigmatized as such, said John Foote of Kelley Drye in a Jan. 19 blog post.