The International Trade Commission decided to review part of an administrative law judge’s February 2012 final initial determination finding no violation of certain claims of patents held by Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. in its investigation of certain reduced ignition proclivity cigarette paper wrappers and products containing same (337-TA-756). The remaining respondent1 is Julius Glatz GmbH / LIPtec GmbH / KneX Worldwide LLC.
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.
Representatives of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada discussed regulatory and sectoral cooperation, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), trade facilitation through the liberalization on rules of origin, and Mexican and Canadian participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations at a meeting of the Free Trade Commission of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Mexican and Canadian ministers, as well as U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, agreed on, among other things: (i) a fourth package of liberalization of NAFTA rules of origin; (ii) a sectoral plan for chemical products; and (iii) pursuing the elimination of unnecessary barriers and costs for SMEs.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is seeking comments by June 4, 2012, on extensions of two currently approved information collections regarding prior approval licensing and annual reporting for the brokering of exports of defense articles, services, and related technical data.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 5, 2012, lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
The Agricultural Marketing Service issued a final rule amending the procedures for determining the official leaf grade for Upland and Pima cotton, effective April 6, 2012. The leaf grade is part of the official classification which denotes cotton fiber quality used in cotton marketing and manufacturing of cotton products. Previously, the leaf grade was determined by visual examination and comparison to the Universal Cotton Standards for Leaf Grade that serves as the official cotton standards by qualified cotton classers. Amended procedures replace the classer’s leaf determination with the instrument leaf measurement made by the High Volume Instrument (HVI) system, which has been used in official cotton classification for Upland Cotton since 1991.
The Court of International Trade found that the International Trade Administration failed to comply with the CIT’s instructions in the ITA’s remand redetermination of final results of the 2007 administrative review of wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-570-890). Specifically, the CIT found that the ITA did not reconsider or further explain the China-wide rate of 216.01% assigned to Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. or the ITA's choice of weight-based data to determine the surrogate value for wood inputs. The CIT has now remanded these issues for a second time.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is revising the voluntary U.S. Standards for Grades of Cultivated Ginseng, effective May 7, 2012. To ensure the integrity of the Standards, the revisions will be based on quality and percentage defects. The new grades will replace the current ones and promote the orderly and efficient marketing of ginseng. Other changes will include a revised General Section, new tolerances, reclassified sizes, removed table “values” and amended definitions.
The International Trade Commission voted to institute an investigation of certain consumer electronics and display devices and products containing same (337-TA-836). The products at issue in this investigation include cellular telephones, personal computers, home theater audio and video components, televisions and gaming and media devices.
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the April 5, 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):
The World Trade Organization Appellate Body upheld the panel’s finding that a U.S. ban on the sale and production of clove cigarettes is inconsistent with U.S. WTO obligations. The provision at issue, Section 907(a)(1)(A) to the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, which prohibits the production or sale in the U.S. of cigarettes containing certain additives including clove, was challenged at the WTO by Indonesia and eight third parties1 in United States -- Measures Affecting the Production and Sale of Clove Cigarettes (DS406).