The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Feb. 11 suspended avocado export program operations in the Mexican state of Michoacan, after a “security incident” that included a verbal threat to an APHIS employee, an agency spokesperson emailed Feb. 14. “The suspension will remain in place for as long as necessary to ensure the appropriate actions are taken, to secure the safety of APHIS personnel working in Mexico,” the spokesperson said.
Brian Feito
Brian Feito is Managing Editor of International Trade Today, Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. A licensed customs broker who spent time at the Department of Commerce calculating antidumping and countervailing duties, Brian covers a wide range of subjects including customs and trade-facing product regulation, the courts, antidumping and countervailing duties and Mexico and the European Union. Brian is a graduate of the University of Florida and George Mason University. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2012.
FDA has issued its Enforcement Report for Feb. 9, listing the status of recalls and field corrections for food, cosmetics, tobacco products, drugs, biologics and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.
A U.S. solar panel manufacturer on Feb. 8 filed another request for an anti-circumvention inquiry on solar cells from third countries made from Chinese inputs, including polysilicon wafers and ingots. Auxin Solar says solar cell imports from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia are circumventing the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China (A-570-979/C-570-980), in a request filed months after a similar petition from a group of anonymous solar producers was rejected by the Commerce Department.
FDA plans to begin a pilot in 2022 on unannounced foreign inspections of foreign drug facilities, in response to concerns that facilities in China and India are able to fix problems before announced inspections to evade FDA enforcement, according to a GAO report released Feb. 7. Likewise, the agency also will soon run a pilot on use of independent translators for inspections in China and Hong Kong, rather than relying on translators provided by the inspected facility.
FDA has issued its Enforcement Report for Feb. 2, listing the status of recalls and field corrections for food, cosmetics, tobacco products, drugs, biologics and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.
FDA is issuing its long-awaited proposed rule on standards for licensing of third-party logistics providers and wholesale distributors under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). As expected (see 1708210034), the proposal’s definition of 3PLs includes only warehousing and 3PLs that take direct possession at a “facility,” exempting carriers engaged only in transportation from licensing requirements.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is proposing a new safety standard for chests, dressers, wardrobes and other clothing storage units to address risks of injury and death associated with clothing storage units tipping over. The proposal would require clothing storage units (CSUs) to be tested for stability, exceed minimum stability requirements, and be marked and labeled with safety information, as well as bear a hang tag providing stability performance and technical data.
The Commerce Department on Jan. 21 issued a final scope ruling continuing to find "veneered panels" with only two layers of veneer are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on hardwood plywood from China (A-570-051/C-570-052), and that their processing in Vietnam into plywood by adding face and back veneers does not substantially transform the panels into a product of Vietnam.
FDA has issued its Enforcement Report for Jan. 26, listing the status of recalls and field corrections for food, cosmetics, tobacco products, drugs, biologics and devices. The report covers both domestic and foreign firms.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping investigations on steel nails from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey (A-533-904, A-542-804, A-549-844, A-489-846) and countervailing duty investigations on steel nails from India, Oman, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey (C-533-905, C-523-817, C-542-805, C-549-845, C-489-847).