The International Trade Administration has made a preliminary affirmative antidumping determination that certain steel grating from China is being, or is likely to be, sold in the U.S. at less than fair value (A-570-947).
The International Trade Commission has announced the institution of investigations and the commencement of preliminary phase antidumping and countervailing duty injury investigations regarding drill pipe from China.
Consumer intentions on buying new TV sets fell for the third straight month, according to preliminary Conference Board data for December. Of 5,000 households polled, only 7.5 percent said they plan to buy a new TV set in the next six months, the board said. That’s down from 7.8 percent in November, 8 percent in October, and 10.7 percent in December 2008 when the country was on the cusp of the initial Feb. 17, 2009, DTV deadline. The Consumer Confidence Index in December increased moderately for the second straight month on a “more optimistic outlook for business and labor market conditions,” the board said. But on income issues, “consumers remain rather pessimistic about their short-term prospects and this will likely continue to play a key role in spending decisions in early 2010,” it said.
The International Trade Administration frequently issues notices on antidumping and countervailing duty orders, investigations, etc. which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued, neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period, etc.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission will hold a meeting on January 6, 2010 that will be open to the public to discuss the following pending decisional matters: (i) Lead in Electronic Devices - Final Rule; (ii) Mandatory Recall Notice - Final Rule. (Notice, dated 12/23/09, available at http://www.cpsc.gov/calendar.html)
New York City wants the court to strike from the record evidence that the city’s sanitation workers’ union introduced in an amicus brief backing CE makers’ request for a preliminary injunction to block the city’s e-waste program from taking effect. The union, in its Dec. 11 brief filed at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, argued that the city’s e-waste law “did not remove residential collection of covered electronic waste from the purview” of the Department of Sanitation, and that such collections should remain the “exclusive province” of sanitation workers.
The International Trade Administration has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping duty administrative reviews:
The International Trade Administration has issued a correction to its notice of final 2009 calculation of expected non-market economy (NME) wages for use as the surrogate value for direct labor in antidumping proceedings involving NME countries, in order to limit the scope of AD proceedings to which these wages will be applied.
Comprehensive FCC action by July on jurisdictional separations may be a long shot, given a short time frame and ongoing work on the National Broadband Plan, said officials for state commissions and state consumer advocates. The FCC may again extend the nearly nine-year-old freeze on separations, which expires June 30, they said. “Another freeze is certainly a possibility,” said Commissioner John Burke of the Vermont Public Service Board. If the FCC chooses to go in that direction, state regulators believe “interim changes to key factors are an absolute pre-requisite to extending final comprehensive review beyond June of this year,” he said.
The International Trade Administration has issued an amended preliminary antidumping duty determination in its investigation of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from China.