Consumer Product Safety Commission Commissioners Nord and Northup have both posted blogs criticizing the draft House legislation put forth by Representative Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, to fix the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. Both say the reform bill would not provide sufficient relief. (Nord and Northup blogs available at http://nancynord.wordpress.com and http://safetyandcommonsense.blogspot.com/2010/05/survival-of-fewest.html)
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has added a sentence to its announcement that a metric unit of measure and quantity is required for the Lacey Act declaration as of May 1, 2010. The new sentence states that in response to industry concerns, APHIS will implement a grace period of two months (ending July 1, 2010), to allow industry to make the needed changes to declaration procedures. (Notice, posted 05/17/10, available at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/lacey_act/downloads/ClarificationQuantityandUnitofMeasure.pdf)
On May 14, 210, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano announced deployments of advanced imaging technology units purchased with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to 28 additional airports - strengthening security at airports throughout the country while boosting local economies. (Press release, dated 05/14/10, available at http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1273850925050.shtm.)
On May 14, 2010, the White House announced that because the actions and policies of the Government of Burma continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, the national emergency declared on May 20, 1997, and the measures adopted on that date, on July 28, 2003, in Executive Order 13310, on October 18, 2007, in Executive Order 13448, and on April 30, 2008, in Executive Order 13464 to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect for another year. (Press release, dated 05/14/10, avaialble at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/notice-president-continuation-national-emergency-with-respect-burma.)
The International Trade Administration has issued a fact sheet announcing its affirmative final determinations in the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of prestressed concrete steel wire strand (PC strand) from China (A-570-945 and C-570-946).
The International Trade Commission has launched two investigations to assess the probable economic effect of providing duty-free treatment for imports of certain environmental goods, and to examine U.S. international trade in such products and the competitive conditions facing U.S. industries.
The Food and Drug Administration has posted revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The International Trade Commission has instituted a section 337 patent-based investigation of certain electronic paper towel dispensing devices and components thereof, pursuant to a complaint (Inv. No. 337-TA-718).
The Foreign Agriculture Service issued the following GAIN reports:
The Office of Textiles and Apparel has posted to its website monthly reports containing official March 2010 trade data from the Census Department for U.S. imports and exports of textiles and apparel.