The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice requesting written comments on its Special 301 out-of-cycle reviews (OCRs) of Russia, Canada, Indonesia, and the Philippines regarding intellectual property rights (IPR).
The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO), the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC), the National Textile Association (NTA), and Unite Here! have issued a press release announcing that on September 21, 2005 they filed petitions with the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) for China safeguard quotas on:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has reopened until October 21, 2005 the comment period on its July 7, 2005 proposed rule to amend 7 CFR Part 319 in order to establish specific requirements for the importation of cut flowers that are hosts of chrysanthemum white rust1 (CWR) from countries where the disease is known to occur, etc.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message regarding the preparation of the CBP form 7512 or ABI Application "QP." CBP states that whenever merchandise, which has been moved to a destination port on an in-bond transportation entry, is entered again for subsequent in-bond transportation (entry type 61, 62, and 63) the immediately preceding in-bond entry number must be recorded on the new CBP form 7512 with the indication "prev in-bond " or for filers using the ABI "QP" functionality to create an electronic in-bond movement, the previous in-bond number is included within the QP30 record, positions 57-68. (Adm: 05-1077, dated 09/15/05, available at http://www.brokerpower.com/cgi-bin/adminsearch/admmsg.view.pl?article=2005/2005-1077.ADM.)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice requesting written comments on its Special 301 out-of-cycle reviews (OCRs) of Ukraine and Saudi Arabia regarding intellectual property rights.
The National Council of Textile Organizations, the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, the National Textile Association, and Unite Here! have issued a press release announcing that on September 14, 2005 they filed petitions with the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) to reapply the following current China safeguard quotas through the end of 2006:
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has posted to its Web site a notice announcing its three-phase enforcement of the new wood packaging material (WPM) regulations which take effect September 16, 2005.
The Food and Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are amending, effective October 7, 2005, the interim final rules issued in 2004 on the use of materials derived from cattle in human food and/or cosmetics, in order to provide for the use of most parts of beef small intestine.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a series of meetings entitled "Vision 2006 - A Conversation With the American Public," that will take place in three cities. The FDA states that the meetings will be an open format where consumers can interact directly with FDA's leadership to discuss issues of public interest. According to the FDA, it will also use the meetings to update the public on current agency programs, engage the public in discussion, and obtain consumer input on specific issues.
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has posted to its web site updated preliminary textile and apparel import data for 2005, which now covers the 2005 period from approximately mid-May 2005 through August 2005.