A nonprofit is asking the Treasury Department to sanction seven Chinese companies after its reporting revealed their alleged ties to forced labor in China’s seafood industry (see 2310100030). The Outlaw Ocean Project, a Washington-based investigative journalism non-profit, said it submitted a petition to Treasury calling for human rights sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Act against the seven companies and their affiliates, who are “complicit in serious human rights abuses” against Xinjiang workers.
The Environmental Protection Agency is setting new significant new use rules (SNURs) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 329 per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have not been imported, manufactured or processed for many years and are designated as inactive on the TSCA Chemical Substance Inventory, it said in a final rule released Jan. 10. As a result of the SNURs, anyone planning to manufacture, import or process any of the chemical substances for an activity designated as a significant new use by this rule are required to notify EPA at least 90 days in advance. Importers of chemicals subject to these SNURs will need to certify their compliance with the SNUR requirements, and exporters of these chemical substances will now become subject to export notification requirements. The final rule takes effect March 11.
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on tapered roller bearings and parts thereof from China (A-570-601). Commerce will assess AD duties at rates determined in these final results on subject merchandise from the companies under review entered June 1, 2021, through May 31, 2022.
The chairman and ranking member of the House Select Committee on China asked the commerce secretary and the U.S. trade representative to use "all existing trade authorities" to hike tariffs on Chinese legacy chips, including those already incorporated into consumer goods, they said in an emailed news release.
The Commerce Department has published the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from China (A-570-979). In the final results of this review, Commerce will set assessment rates for subject merchandise from the 33 companies under review entered December 2021 through November 2022.
Companies, labor unions and domestic producer coalitions that support antidumping and countervailing duties on Vietnamese exports all said Vietnam has not changed its practices enough to be considered a market economy in AD/CVD cases in the 21 years since the last evaluation of its status found it wasn't.
The International Trade Commission posted the 2024 Basic Edition of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. The new HTS implements the restoration of AGOA benefits for Mauritania and their removal for the Central African Republic, Gabon, Niger and Uganda, as well as a lengthy list of 10-digit-level changes for fruits and vegetables, chemicals, medicaments and recycled aluminum. Changes were effective as of Jan. 1 unless otherwise noted.
The Commerce Department published the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on prestressed concrete steel wire strand from Malaysia (A-557-819). The agency modified its preliminary calculation method, based on comments received, but the final results didn't change the zero percent AD rate determined in the preliminary results for all four companies under review: Kiswire Sdn. Bhd.; Wei Dat Steel Wire Sdn. Bhd.; Southern Steel Sdn. Bhd.; and Southern PC Steel Sdn. Bhd. Commerce will liquidate entries from the four companies during the period Nov. 19, 2020, through May 31, 2022, without regard to AD, and future entries from the four won't be subject to an AD cash deposit requirement until further notice. The new rates take effect Jan. 3.
The Commerce Department made preliminary affirmative antidumping duty determinations that imports of paper shopping bags from Cambodia (A-555-002), China (A-570-152), Colombia (A-301-805), India (A-533-917), Malaysia (A-557-825), Portugal (A-471-808), Taiwan (A-583-872), Turkey (A-489-849) and Vietnam (A-552-836), are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. The agency will generally impose AD cash deposit requirements on entries of subject merchandise beginning on Jan. 3, 2024, though cash deposit requirements take effect retroactively for all Vietnamese companies, and some Cambodian, Taiwanese and Chinese companies, beginning on Oct. 5, 2023.
U.S. solar cell maker Auxin Solar and solar module designer Concept Clean Energy launched a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade on Dec. 29 to contest the Commerce Department's pause of antidumping and countervailing duties on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from Southeast Asian found to be circumventing the AD/CVD orders on these products from China (Auxin Solar v. U.S., CIT # 23-00274).