The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has issued a notice seeking comments on its recent request for consultations with Guatemala under the DR-CAFTA labor chapter to address concerns about Guatemala’s failure to enforce its labor laws.
Working with the FTC, Indiana officials have been pursuing violations of state phone privacy laws by companies and individuals selling medical discount plans using unwanted faxes or outlaw robocalls, Attorney General Greg Zoeller said last week. Since 2009, Indiana has filed six lawsuits as part of a nationwide FTC sweep involving 23 states and resulting in more than 50 actions against such operations, he said. His office received nearly 1,500 complaints of unwanted faxes or robocalls pitching medical plans during the nearly two-year period, Zoeller said. The suits allege deceptive practices or representations as well as violations of insurance laws. Some of Indiana’s actions have led to settlements. California-based Association for Lifestyle Reform and Claims & Benefit Management settled in June, paying $65,000 in civil penalties. In May, Texas-based Association Healthcare Management, doing business as Family Care, paid $30,000. Brett Scott, Phillip Jones and Nicholas Wall, of California and Wyoming, agreed in June to pay $40,000, of which they have made good on $12,000. Zoeller’s said cases are pending in Indiana against Direct Health Partners, also known as Health Solutions, based in Nevada and Texas and operated by Harold Roy Judson Lief; against Smart Data Solutions, American Trade Association and Serve America Assurance, Ltd., based in California and Tennessee; and California-based Gary Lord, also known as Gary Davis.
The International Trade Commission has instituted a section 337 patent-based investigation of certain flat panel digital televisions and components thereof, pursuant to a complaint.
On July 20, 2010, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Coast Longshore Division, Costa Rica’s Sindicato de Trabajadores, and Costa Rica's Asociación Nacional de Empleados Públicos y Privados submitted a petition against the government of Costa Rica charging that Costa Rica is violating the DR-CAFTA by not enforcing its own labor laws.
During the August 4, 2010 COAC meeting, the full committee adopted the Importer Security Filing Subcommittee’s recommendations on benefits for ISF highly compliant importers. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has since posted COAC’s recommendations on its Web site.
The Court of International Trade rejected the International Trade Administration’s approach to combined antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) tariffs on imports from non-market economies, and ordered the agency to forego imposing CVDs on off-the-road (OTR) tires from China. The ruling is likely to mean lower combined rates in the future for diverse imports from China and other non-market economy countries1 that are subject to both types of trade remedy tariffs.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s broad legislation to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act, H.R. 5820 - the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010, would impose extensive new requirements on manufacturers and processors of chemical substances and mixtures distributed in commerce, which would affect importers and exporters.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that the owners and operators of eight shops in San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf district and several of the stores' employees were charged in a 25-count indictment as part of the largest federal enforcement action ever taken against West Coast retailers suspected of selling counterfeit designer apparel and accessories.
Program access disputes are now drawing industry attention, not FCC action, commission and industry officials said. They said some pay-TV companies are discussing carriage deals to avert further complaints to the FCC, and the commission is awaiting filings from defendants in filed cases. Cablevision and spun-off subsidiary Madison Square Garden, the subject of complaints by AT&T and Verizon, continue trading filings with the telcos on procedures for the FCC to handle the cases (CD Aug 2 p9) and don’t seem near a settlement, said communications lawyers monitoring the disputes and not involved in them. They said Comcast could reach carriage deals with direct broadcast satellite providers for its Philadelphia sports channels and so could Cox Communications for a San Diego network.
In a speech about the Obama Administration’s trade enforcement efforts, U.S. Trade Representative Kirk announced that the U.S. is initiating consultations with Guatemala under the DR-CAFTA labor chapter to address concerns about Guatemala’s failure to enforce its labor laws.