Whirlpool, the company that brought antidumping and countervailing duty complaints and then a safeguard petition against imported washing machines, did not gain market share, add workers or increase wages for its workers as a result of the safeguard's tariff rate quotas, the International Trade Commission found.

While most shippers applauded the Federal Maritime Commission’s revised proposed rule on unreasonable carrier conduct, carriers urged the commission to again amend the wording, saying it unfairly favors exporters and stretches beyond the authority granted to the FMC by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. Several major carriers said the commission should narrow the rule’s proposed definition for “unreasonableness,” allow carriers to rely on “legitimate business factors” as a reason for why they may refuse cargo space, remove the rule's documented export policy requirement and revise other proposals they say disadvantage carriers.

Importers should be careful when combining several goods into a single shipment, which can save them money in fees but also present some complications, Flexport executives said during an Aug. 2 webinar hosted by the company.

The Biden administration needs a more “credible, durable economic strategy” in the Indo-Pacific than the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, such as one that involves formal trade agreements, said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In a July 31 commentary for CSIS, Goodman, a former National Security Council official, said IPEF’s “greatest promise” is “as an incubator for new or revised provisions of a formal trade agreement in the Indo-Pacific region,” including one that includes new or updated chapters on labor, environment, digital standards, supply chain resilience and economic coercion.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is updating its regulations to better align with the Designer Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2014, which added new labeling requirements for products containing anabolic steroids. The law’s labeling provision states that it’s illegal to import, export, manufacture, distribute or dispense -- “or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense” -- an anabolic steroid or product containing an anabolic steroid unless the product includes a label “clearly identifying the anabolic steroid or product containing an anabolic steroid by the nomenclature used by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.” DEA said it’s “simply updating its regulations to be consistent with the exact terms of DASCA.” The rule takes effect Aug. 1.

Canada's International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) reached a new tentative labor agreement days after ILWU members voted against the previous tentative deal, ILWU Canada and BCMEA announced July 30. BCMEA said both sides are again "recommending ratification of the collective agreement to the union’s membership and member employers."

Rebecca Dye of the Federal Maritime Commission proposed new sets of best practices for ocean carriers and marine terminal operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Port of New York and New Jersey, covering activities surrounding container returns, earliest return dates and container pickups.

The Biden administration's trade agenda should focus less on protectionism and more on traditional trade agreements, said a former treasury secretary and U.S. trade representative during a July 25 event hosted by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is amending its regulations on its procedures for seizures and forfeitures to make them "easier to understand using simpler language" and more clearly explain "the procedures used in administrative forfeiture proceedings," the agency said. The final rule, issued July 25, largely adopts changes proposed in 2016 (see 1606160030), with minor changes. Among other things, the changes make the seizure and forfeiture process "more efficient" and "more uniform with those of other agencies," the FWS said. The final rule takes effect Aug. 24.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is temporarily adding five synthetic benzodiazepines -- etizolam, flualprazolam, clonazolam, flubromazolam and diclazepam -- to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said in a notice July 26. The listings take effect July 26, and will be in effect for up to three years.