China's Ministry of Commerce reports that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, during her first visit as Commissioner, said on August 13, 2010 that China is improving its oversight of exporters in a bid to root out problems ranging from the contamination of its dairy products to the safety of pharmaceutical exports. She said that U.S.-China teamwork on food safety was part of a broader move to create a global community of regulators, adding that FDA has set up offices in three Chinese cities and is cooperating in many areas, including training and joint inspections. The article adds that the Chinese government introduced a new Food Safety Law in June 2009 with tougher punishments.
The World Trade Organization has posted a notification from Brazil, which expresses its readiness to hold prior consultations regarding extension of the safeguard measure in the form of quantitative restriction on imports of desiccated coconut, and proposes that such consultations take place until August 20, 2010. (May have to click on source document twice for proper viewing.)
The European Commission reports that exports of animals and animal products from the European Union to Russia are expected to receive a boost after five new certificates for exports between the EU and the Russian Federation entered into force on August 15. These certificates concern beef with bones, canned and dry pet food and breeding sheep and goats.
The World Trade Organization has posted a notification by the U.S. to the WTO Committee on Agriculture of a summary of safeguard actions taken in 2009, which includes the tariff item number, a description of the product, whether volume-based action was taken (none), and whether price-based action was taken and affected quantities. (May have to click on source document twice for proper viewing.)
The European Chemicals Agency has issued its August 2010 newsletter which discusses the November 30, 2010 registration deadline under the EU REACH program, the December 1, 2010 classification, labeling, and packaging (CLP) deadline, and other topics to help the trade comply with EU chemical substance regulations.
The International Organization for Standardization has published a new technical report, ISO/TR 11360:2010, Nanotechnologies -- Methodology for the classification and categorization of materials. This report offers a comprehensive, globally harmonized methodology for classifying materials.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Korea has announced that imports of U.S. beef more than doubled in the first half of 2010 from a year ago, making Korea the 4th largest importer of U.S. beef after Mexico, Canada and Japan. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says some 57,000 tons of U.S. beef were exported to Korea in the first six months of 2010, compared to 28,000 tons in the same period last year.