The International Trade Administration's Civil Nuclear Trade Advisory Committee (CINTAC) scheduled a public meeting June 5, 2012. Items on the agenda include discussion of the ITA's Civil Nuclear Trade Initiative update, the Civil Nuclear Trade promotion activities, and a public comment period. The CINTAC was established in response to an identified need for consensus advice from U.S. industry to the U.S. Government regarding the development and administration of programs to expand U.S. exports of civil nuclear goods and services in accordance with applicable U.S. laws and regulations. Public seating is limited and will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Members of the public wishing to attend the meeting must pre-register by June 1, 2012 to obtain clearance into the building. Copies of CINTAC meeting minutes will be available within 90 days of the meeting.
Brian Feito
Brian Feito is Managing Editor of International Trade Today, Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. A licensed customs broker who spent time at the Department of Commerce calculating antidumping and countervailing duties, Brian covers a wide range of subjects including customs and trade-facing product regulation, the courts, antidumping and countervailing duties and Mexico and the European Union. Brian is a graduate of the University of Florida and George Mason University. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2012.
The International Trade Administration is seeking comment on any subsidies, including stumpage subsidies, provided by certain countries exporting softwood lumber or softwood lumber products to the U.S. during the period July 1 through December 31, 2011.
The World Trade Organization said the Committee on Safeguards reviewed 26 safeguard actions taken by WTO members since October 2011, of which six were from Turkey and five from Indonesia, at a meeting on April 27, 2012. Other members reporting safeguard actions were Brazil, Dominican Republic, Egypt, India, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, the Philippines and Ukraine.
The Foreign Agricultural Service amended the availability and maximum allowable tenor of credit guarantees for sales of U.S. agricultural commodities under the Commodity Credit Corporation's Export Credit Guarantee Program (GSM-102) for fiscal year 2012, for the following countries/regions:
The State Department issued a proposed rule to revise USML Category V (explosives and energetic materials, propellants, incendiary agents, and their constituents) to remove catchall categories, narrow the articles controlled on the USML, to make this list of items more positive, and address multilateral obligations. At the same time, BIS is proposing the creation of four new 600 series ECCNs to control articles removed from Category V that would instead be controlled by the CCL. The State Department is also not proposing any tiering at this time.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service issued emails May 1, 2012, announcing changes to some Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) electronic manuals. While some changes are minor, other changes may affect the admissibility of the plant products, including fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
The International Trade Administration published a notice on May 1 initiating a sunset review that inadvertently listed the order under review as the antidumping order on activated carbon from China and the effective date as March 1. The correct order under review is instead the AD order on polyester staple fiber from China (A-570-905), as is stated in the ITA's April 2 advance notification of sunset reviews. Officials at the ITA said the ITA will issue a correction as soon as possible, and that it's still determining what effect the late publication of the corrected notice will have on deadlines. ITT will provide notice of the deadlines as soon as information is made available by the ITA.
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the May 2, 2012, Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will appear in another ITT article):
On May 1, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
On May 1, 2012, the Foreign Agricultural Service issued the following GAIN reports: