The Federal Maritime Commission is reorganizing some of its functions by "revising certain delegations of authority from the Commission, updating descriptions of organization components, and making minor related technical amendments," it said in a Federal Register notice scheduled to take effect June 20.
The FDA is exempting certain class II clinical thermometers from pre-market notification requirements, it said in a Federal Register notice. The order is effective June 18.
The Comfy, a "wearable, oversized item covering the front and back with a hood, sleeves, ribbed cuffs, and a marsupial pocket," is a pullover and not a blanket, the Court of International Trade held on June 16. Issuing a decision after a five-day bench trial held last year, Judge Stephen Vaden said, as a matter of fact, The Comfy doesn't protect against "extreme cold," and that, as a matter of law, the item fits under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 6110, which provides for pullovers.
Market demand for ocean carriers from Asia to the U.S. West Coast has picked up as importers rush to beat any additional increases in tariff rates -- including potentially higher U.S. duties on goods from China, according to multiple sources.
Senators from both parties asked Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to respond to a Wall Street Journal editorial headlined "Trump Has No China Trade Strategy." Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., when he had a chance to ask Bessent questions, quoted from it that Trump "has used tariffs as an economic scatter-gun against friends as well as foes."
House Select Committee on China Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., said his vision of revoking Permanent Normal Trade Relations status for China is not to move Chinese goods to Column 2, but to create a new tariff schedule just for Chinese goods, with high rates reserved for strategic goods. Moolenaar, who has sponsored legislation to end PNTR (see 2501240061), described the approach he'd like to see at a Center for a New Security conference June 3.
An importer is liable for duties on merchandise that it sought to import in 2019, despite arguing that it didn't consent to having its broker designate it as an importer of record, according to a recent CBP ruling.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments on whether any act, policy or practice relating to drug prices appears "unreasonable or discriminatory," or appears to have "the effect of forcing American patients to pay for a disproportionate amount of global pharmaceutical research and development, including by suppressing the price of pharmaceutical products below fair market value in foreign countries," it said in a Federal Register notice,
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act doesn't allow the president to impose tariffs, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on May 29. A day after the Court of International Trade vacated and permanently enjoined all the tariff executive orders issued under IEEPA by President Donald Trump, the D.C. court went a step further and categorically ruled that IEEPA doesn't include the power to impose tariffs (Learning Resources v. Trump, D.D.C. # 25-1248).
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is allowing imports of fresh pineapple fruit (Ananas comosus) for consumption from Indonesia into the U.S., it said in a Federal Register notice. The change is effective May 29. The agency made its decision following a pest risk analysis that determined that the application of one or more designated phytosanitary measures would be sufficient to mitigate the risks of introducing or disseminating plant pests or noxious weeds.