Thea Lee, head of the Bureau of International Labor Affairs during the Biden administration, complained that the tariff approach of the Trump administration ignores forced labor, and that the Department of Government Efficiency ended all the programs ILAB funded around the world. Those programs aimed to convince local societies to end child labor, to help foreign countries improve working conditions, and they funded research on the best ways to achieve these goals. The grants totaled more than $575 million, and some were scheduled to run through 2026, 2027 or 2028.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register May 14 on the following antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CVD rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department has published the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany (A-428-847). Commerce preliminarily calculated an AD rate of 8.9% for BGH Edelstahl Siegen GmbH, the only company still covered by the review. Any changes to BGH's cash deposit rates would take effect on the publication date of the final results of this review, currently expected in September. Once Commerce issues its final results of the review, if the outcome doesn't change, the agency will assess AD at importer-specific rates for entries of subject merchandise from BHG entered Jan. 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023, it said.
The Commerce Department has published the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on polyethylene terephthalate film from Taiwan (A-583-837). Commerce continued to find, as it did in the preliminary results of this review, that Nan Ya Plastics Corp. did not undersell subject merchandise during the period of review, assigning the company a zero percent AD rate. Subject merchandise from Nan Ya entered between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, will be liquidated without any assessment of antidumping duties, and future entries of subject merchandise exported by Nan Ya won't be subject to AD cash deposit requirements until further notice. The new AD cash deposit rate takes effect May 14, the day the final results were published in the Federal Register.
The Commerce Department has issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review on methionine from Spain (A-469-822, CBP # A-470-822). For entries on or after May 14, the date these final results were published in the Federal Register, Commerce is setting a new 0.71% AD cash deposit rate for the only company under review, Adisseo España S.A., the same rate as in the preliminary results of the review. Commerce will liquidate entries at importer-specific rates for entries from Adisseo during the period Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2023.
The Commerce Department has published the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on steel nails from South Korea (A-580-874). These final results will be used to set final assessments of AD on importers of subject merchandise entered July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023.
The Commerce Department has published the final results of a countervailing duty administrative review of certain lined paper products from India (C-533-844). Rates set in this review will be used to set importer assessments for subject merchandise from Navneet Education Limited entered during the period Jan. 1, 2022, through Dec. 31, 2022.
The EPA has issued an interim final rule amending the data submission period for the Toxic Substances Control Act's perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) reporting rule, claiming that it needs to have adequate software in place before it can start collecting data, it said in a Federal Register notice.
On May 13, the FDA posted new and revised versions of the following Import Alerts on the detention without physical examination of:
The House Ways and Means Committee, after an all-night session on what it calls One Big Beautiful Bill, passed the tax cut bill along party lines on May 14.