Officials in the Food and Drug Administration’s China office say the Chinese are on their way to developing an infrastructure that better ensures product safety. The FDA said it has trained more than 1,600 Chinese manufacturers and regulators on U.S. safety standards over the past two years. Michael Kravchuk, who was deputy director in Beijing until he retired in September, says the FDA has built solid relationships with Chinese regulators and exporters since officially opening an office in Beijing in November 2008. The FDA held a hands-on workshop in the cities of Hangzhou and Zhoushan in September. The event included a half-day of classroom instruction and three full days of demonstrations at two plants that process low-acid canned foods such as mushrooms, sardines, artichoke hearts, and tuna.
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 first of a series of workshops entitled ‘‘Designing for Impact: Workshop on Building the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation” was announced by the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office (AMNPO), housed by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The workshop will be April 25, 2012, and will provide a forum for the AMPNO to introduce the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI) and its regional components, Institutes for Manufacturing Innovation (IMIs). The workshops will also provide a forum for public discussion of the new initiative, which President Obama announced March 9, 2012. Online registration for the workshop will close April 20.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is announcing a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) on May 22-25, 2012. Topics covered at the meeting will include proposals that address petitions pertaining to the National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances (National List), proposals that address substances on the National List that are due to sunset in 2013, proposals that address issues on materials and excluded methods, and proposals to amend the NOSB Policies and Procedures Manual. The meeting will be open to the public. Written public comments are due by May 3. The meeting agenda, NOSB proposals, instructions for submitting and viewing public comments, and instructions for requesting a time slot for oral comments are available on the National Organic Program (NOP) website here.
The International Trade Administration is publishing notices in the April 9, 2012, Federal Register on the following AD/CV proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, the scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Foreign Trade Zones Board is issuing the following notices for April 9, 2012:
Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 9, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
The Food Safety and Inspection Service reports that the 6th session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food met on March 26-30 in the Netherlands, and the 27th Session of the Codex Committee on General Principles met on April 2-6 in France. The Committees discussed risk analysis principles on contaminants in animal feed, and a discussion on why standards are held at Step 8 rather than adopted. Details of the meetings follow:
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Web site as of April 5, 2012, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board is issuing the following notices for April 6, 2012:
The ITC is publishing notices in the April 6, 2012 Federal Register on meetings that are open to the public pursuant to the Government in the Sunshine Act with the following AD/CV and patent related items on the agenda (unless otherwise indicated, these meetings are held at the ITC Building):