On April 26, 2010, APHIS updated the Manual for Agricultural Clearance. The manual provides CBP personnel working at airport and maritime locations with the guidelines, directions, and policy for clearing carriers and passengers/crew and controlling garbage and cargo. (Manual, updated 04/26/10, available at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/import_export/plants/manuals/ports/mac.shtml)
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced that Jo-Ann Stores Inc. of Hudson, Ohio has agreed to pay a $50,000 civil penalty to settle allegations of importing and selling children’s products that violated the federal lead paint ban.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted draft proposed rules that would designate certain children’s upper outerwear with drawstring violations and handheld hairdryers without immersion protection to be substantial product hazards under section 15 (j) of the Consumer Product Safety Act.
The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has issued Revision 2 to its Guidelines for Preparing Agreements, which incorporates additional revisions to its previously published Guidelines (Revision 1A, published in April 2009).
The Treasury Department has published its current list of countries that require or may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott. The countries included on this list are:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued a press release announcing that during an observance of World Intellectual Property Day on April 26, 2010, the federal partners of the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center1 announced that more than $263 million worth of counterfeit merchandise was seized by law enforcement around the U.S. in April 2010.
Broker Power is now issuing weekly summary reports highlighting the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels1 from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” BP’s weekly report also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”