The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a final rule to add a new Part 1633 to 16 CFR in order to establish flammability (open flame) requirements that all "mattress sets" must meet before sale or introduction into commerce. The purpose of the flammability standard is to reduce deaths and injuries associated with mattress fires by limiting the size of the fire generated by a mattress set during a thirty-minute test.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a final rule, effective March 7, 2006, which amends 7 CFR Part 319 to allow certain types of peppers grown in approved registered production sites in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua to be imported, under certain conditions, into the U.S. without treatment.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a press release announcing that on April 3, 2006, it launched ePermits, a new Web-based system to streamline the import process.
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released its 2006 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE), which is an annual report documenting foreign trade and investment barriers and U.S. efforts to reduce and eliminate those barriers.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a news release announcing that it has issued warning letters to two manufacturers and two distributors of unapproved drugs containing steroids.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a final rule, effective March 14, 2006, in order to amend its January 2005 final rule which established bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) minimal risk regions and added Canada to this category of regions.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice on the CAFTA-DR tariff rate quotas (TRQs) that have been implemented for the March 1, 2006 - December 31, 2006 period for certain "qualifying" agricultural products (except sugar) from El Salvador, the only country to date that the U.S. has implemented the CAFTA-DR for.
A N.J. Supreme Court ruling that Rent-a-Center must come under the same interest rate caps as other retailers letting consumers pay by installment won’t affect the chain’s N.J. operations, CEO Mark Speese said in a statement. The ruling reversed a lower court dismissal of Hilda Perez’s suit. She claimed RAC violated the N.J. Retail Installment Sales and Consumer Fraud Acts, which cap at 30% per year interest on installment deals. Perez alleged she paid $8,000 toward what was approximately 80% interest for furniture, a TV, a washing machine and other appliances. RAC was “clearly disappointed” by the ruling, “particularly in light of the 2 favorable decisions we previously received in this case,” said Speese. The decision could mean other consumers who paid more than 30% interest can claim refunds from RAC. The case goes to state court, where lawyers will try to have it certified as a class-action suit so other N.J. Rent-a-Center customers can seek refunds. The items Perez rented had a combined cash price of $9,301. But if she paid the weekly rates and purchase option payments, she would have spent $18,613 to own the items. Only one justice, Roberto Rivera- Soto, dissented in part. “If there is a need to regulate the rent-to-own industry -- a need certainly not demonstrated in this record -- then the source of that regulation should be legislative or executive action, and not a cobbled-together judicial cure for a perceived but unsubstantiated ill,” he wrote. Meanwhile, a final settlement calling for RAC to pay $1.75 million to 777 current and former account managers, inside/outside managers and executive assistant managers was approved in federal court in Ore., the chain said in a 10K filed with the SEC. The managers sued in 2005, alleging the chain violated Ore. law on overtime, lunch and work breaks and failed to pay all wages due the employees. RAC reserved $1.3 million in fiscal year ended Dec. 31 to fund a settlement subject to an April 21 final hearing. The suit began in Ore. Superior Court, Clark County. The 2001 class action involved 1,300 current and former employees.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to the Pilot Bond Centralization Program section of its Web site a February 13, 2006 version of its guidance document entitled "Latest News and Developments." According to CBP, this document provides information on the Pilot Bond Centralization Program and current issues, policies, and procedures for processing bond applications. (See ITT's Online Archives or 12/08/05 news, 05120805, for BP's summary of CBP's November 29, 2005 version of its "Latest News and Developments" guidance document.)
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a notice announcing that it has reopened its comment period until March 10, 2006, for a proposed rule that would amend 7 CFR Part 319 in order to list a number of fruits and vegetables from certain parts of the world as eligible, under specified conditions, for importation into the U.S.