Petition Filed Requesting the Imposition of Antidumping Duties on Truck and Bus Tires from Thailand - Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP
On October 17, 2023, United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC filed a petition for the imposition of antidumping duties on Truck and Bus Tires from Thailand. The petition alleges dumping margins of 47.81%. The petition identifies certain foreign producers/exporters and U.S. importers of the investigated product.
The merchandise subject to this investigation is truck and bus tires. Truck and bus tires are new pneumatic tires, of rubber, with a truck or bus size designation. Truck and bus tires covered by the scope may be tube-type, tubeless, radial, or non-radial. The petition provides additional detailed scope description and specific product exclusions.
The projected date of International Trade Commission’s Preliminary Conference is November 7, 2023. The earliest theoretical date for retroactive suspension of liquidation for AD is December 26, 2023.
Please feel free to contact one of our attorneys for further information, including a complete scope description, complete projected schedule for the AD investigation; the volume and value of imports; and list of identified foreign exporters and U.S. importers.
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Federal Register Notices:
• Investigations; Determinations, Modifications, and Rulings, etc.: Certain Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) Systems and Components Thereof; Notice of Commission Determination To Review and, on Review, To Affirm With Modification an Initial Determination Terminating the Investigation in Its Entirety Based on an Arbitration Agreement; Termination of Investigation
• Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews
• Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews: Steel Concrete Reinforcing Bar From the Republic of Turkey: Rescission of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2022
• Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2021-2022
• Certain Frozen Warmwater Shrimp From India: Notice of Final Results of Antidumping Duty Changed Circumstances Review
• Large Diameter Welded Pipe From the Republic of Korea: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2021-2022
• Investigations; Determinations, Modifications, and Rulings, etc.: Gas Powered Pressure Washers From Vietnam
• Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews: Aluminum Wire and Cable From the People's Republic of China: Initiation of Scope and Circumvention Inquiries of the Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty Orders
• Low Melt Polyester Staple Fiber From the Republic of Korea and Taiwan: Final Results of the Expedited First Sunset Reviews of Antidumping Duty Orders
• Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews: Drawn Stainless Steel Sinks From the People's Republic of China: Final Results of the Expedited Second Sunset Review of the Countervailing Duty Order
• Investigations; Determinations, Modifications, and Rulings, etc.: Certain Graphics Systems, Components Thereof, and Digital Televisions Containing the Same; Notice of Commission Determination To Review in Part a Final Initial Determination Finding a Violation of Section 337; Request for Written Submissions on the Issues Under Review and on Remedy, the Public Interest, and Bonding
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CBP Offers Free Webinars to Help Businesses Report Trade Violations - U.S. Customs & Border Protection
WASHINGTON – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced a new series of quarterly training webinars and resources to help small- and medium-sized businesses report trade violations that threaten their bottom line and hurt the broader U.S. economy. The announcement was delivered yesterday during the 2023 World Korean Business Conference.
“Duty evasion, forced labor, and other trade violations pose existential threats to the small- and medium-sized businesses that drive American innovation and competitiveness,” said CBP Executive Assistant Commissioner AnnMarie Highsmith. “The new webinars on the Trade Violations Reporting Tool will empower local and regional companies to partner with CBP in protecting against unfair competition and ensuring a level economic playing field.”
The webinars will run from November 7, 2023, through September 10, 2024, and will guide participants through the process of reporting commercial trade violations using the Trade Violations Reporting Tool. This user-friendly, accessible, web-based platform streamlines CBP’s enforcement processes and enables users to easily report violations without the need for extensive resources or specialized knowledge. The webinars will demonstrate how to report allegations of a variety of trade violations, including antidumping and countervailing duty evasion, forced labor, and natural resource crimes. All webinars will be free of charge, open to the public, and recorded to produce training videos for the CBP website.
Reporting illicit trade practices can help maintain healthy competition as well as promote innovation and sustainable growth for American businesses. CBP deployed the first iteration of its Trade Violations Reporting Tool in 2008 to enable members of the trade community and the general public to submit allegations of suspected trade violations. CBP’s recent improvements to the tool increase program transparency and communication with allegers to ensure a more streamlined, cohesive, and visible end-to-end process. The Trade Violations Reporting Tool now automatically notifies allegers when there are updates to their allegations, including the result of the investigation, so that allegers are updated throughout the lifecycle of the allegation.
Any person or organization can report detailed trade violation allegations through CBP’s Online Trade Violations Reporting Tool or by calling 1-800-BE-ALERT. CBP encourages individuals and organizations interested in reporting trade violations to review these user guides and instructional materials and to register for an upcoming webinar on the CBP website.
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Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 - FDA
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CISA, NSA, FBI, and MS-ISAC Release Phishing Prevention Guidance - CISA
Today (10/18/23), the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) released a joint guide, Phishing Guidance: Stopping the Attack Cycle at Phase One. The joint guide outlines phishing techniques malicious actors commonly use and provides guidance for both network defenders and software manufacturers to reduce the impact of phishing techniques used in obtaining credentials and deploying malware.
CISA and its partners encourage network defenders and software manufacturers to implement the recommendations in the guide to reduce the frequency and impact of phishing incidents. For more information, see CISA’s Malware, Phishing, and Ransomware and Security-by-Design and -Default webpages.
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USTR Announces Enforcement Action to Block Illegal Timber Imports from Peru - U.S. Trade Representative
WASHINGTON – The Office of the United States Trade Representative today announced that the Interagency Committee on Trade in Timber Products from Peru (Timber Committee) has directed United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue to block any timber imports from Inversiones La Oroza SRL (Oroza), a Peruvian exporter, based on illegally harvested timber found in its supply chain.
The Timber Committee directed CBP to continue to deny entry to any future shipments of timber products originating from Peru that were produced or exported by Oroza until the Government of Peru demonstrates that Oroza has complied with all applicable laws, regulations, and other measures of Peru governing the harvest of and trade in timber.
The United States will continue to engage closely with Peru to combat illegal logging and work toward improving forest sector governance.
BACKGROUND
This action is taken pursuant to the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement’s (PTPA) Annex on Forest Sector Governance (Forest Annex).
In February 2016, the Timber Committee requested that the Government of Peru verify a 2015 timber shipment exported from Peru to the United States complied with Peruvian laws, regulations, and other measures governing the harvest of and trade in timber products. The timber verification process was conducted by the Government of Peru and revealed that timber products contained in a shipment from Oroza were not harvested and traded in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
On October 19, 2017, the Timber Committee directed CBP to deny entry to any future shipments of timber products originating from Peru that were produced or exported by Oroza. That denial of entry order against Oroza was renewed on October 19, 2020. To date, the Government of Peru has not provided additional information to demonstrate that Oroza is complying with all applicable laws, regulations, and other measures of Peru governing the harvest of and trade in timber products.
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FTC Issues Annual Report to Congress on Agency’s Actions to Protect Older Adults - Federal Trade Commission
Adults 60 and older report losses of $1.6 billion in 2022 to scams, investment scams are top reported by dollars lost
The Federal Trade Commission has issued its latest report to Congress on protecting older adults, which highlights key trends based on fraud reports by older adults, and the FTC’s multi-pronged efforts to combat the problem through law enforcement actions, rulemaking, and outreach and education programs.
In addition, the report calls on Congress to update the FTC Act in response to the Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling in the AMG Capital Management case, which severely limited the FTC’s ability to recover money that older adults and other consumers lose to scammers.
“We do all we can to protect older adults and shut down the scams targeting them,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But we still need Congress to restore our authority to get money back from the scammers and into consumers’ pockets.”
The report, Protecting Older Consumers, 2022-2023, A Report of the Federal Trade Commission, finds that older adults reported losing more than $1.6 billion to fraud in 2022.
Because the vast majority of frauds are not reported, this figure represents only a fraction of the overall cost of fraud to older consumers, which the FTC estimates to be as high as $48 billion. The report also finds that in 2022, older adults reported significantly higher losses to investment scams, business impersonation scams and government impersonation scams than they did in 2021:
• Investment scams: $404 million reported lost, up 175% from 2021.
• Business impersonation scams: $271 million reported lost, up 78% from 2021.
• Tech support scams: $159 million reported lost, up 117% from 2021.
As in prior years, the analysis of fraud reports received by the FTC in 2022 showed that adults aged 60 and over were substantially less likely to report losing money to fraud than adults aged 18-59. When they did report losing money, though, they tended to report losing substantially more than younger adults. Consumers 80 and older reported losing a median of $1,750 to fraud, while those in their seventies reported a median loss of $1,000, with both numbers increasing over 2021.
The analysis included in the report to Congress also found that adults 60 and older were more than six times as likely as adults aged 18 to 59 to report losing money to a tech support scam. Older adults were more than twice as likely to report a loss to a prize, lottery or sweepstakes scam, and 73 percent more likely to report losing money to a friend or family impersonation scam.
The report’s analysis shows that older adults filed the largest number of reports about online frauds—where consumers were first exposed to the fraud via social media, the web, or online ads. The largest median losses, however, were reported by older adults on fraud that started with a phone call. The impact of scams where older adults were contacted on social media also increased; the median reported loss from this type of scam jumped from $460 in 2021 to $800 in 2022.
The report focuses on key actions the FTC has taken to protect older consumers, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s AMG Capital decision. In 2022, the Commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on government and business impersonation, which is aimed at curbing a form of fraud that has resulted in tremendous losses for older consumers. A new rule would offer additional tools for the FTC to seek refunds for consumers harmed by these scams.
In addition, the report notes a number of enforcement actions that had a particular impact on older consumers, including cases against Publishers Clearing House for using dark patterns to mislead consumers into thinking that making a purchase would increase their chances of winning the company’s sweepstakes drawing; a company that placed more than a billion calls to consumers, including hundreds of robocalls and calls to consumers on the National Do-Not-Call Registry; a bogus credit card relief scheme; a timeshare exit scam; a company making false health claims about COVID prevention; and current and former major distributors for the multi-level marketing company doTERRA for making baseless claims about COVID treatments. The report highlights a number of ongoing law enforcement partnerships in which the FTC works with other federal agencies, along with state and local authorities, to take actions to protect older consumers.
Finally, the report details the FTC’s outreach and education efforts through such programs as the Pass it On campaign, which focuses on providing fraud prevention resources to older adults so they can help protect their communities by sharing the information and materials with family and friends. It also details the FTC’s ongoing efforts to implement the Stop Senior Scams Act of 2022.
The Commission vote authorizing the report to Congress was 3-0.
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A Green Gateway for Goods at the Port of New York and New Jersey - Port of NY/NJ
It wouldn’t be the first time the Port of New York and New Jersey changed the game.
67 years after Malcolm McLean loaded the world’s first shipping container onto the deck of a converted tanker at Port Newark, the East Coast’s busiest gateway is getting ready for another profound shift: leading the way in the transition to clean energy and net-zero emissions in the shipping industry.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s wide-ranging Net Zero Roadmap outlines several concrete steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the New York/New Jersey seaport as part of the agency’s overall commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The commitment encompasses not just the authority’s direct emissions, but also emissions produced by its operating partners – in this case, the wide world of marine terminal operators, oceangoing vessel operators, railroads, and trucking companies.
Already, 89 of the port’s 91 ship-to-shore and rail-mounted gantry cranes are electric, with a mandate for full electrification by 2026. Through an ambitious marine terminal tariff, the agency is phasing out old equipment and requiring terminal operators to move to zero-emission material handling equipment as new models become commercially available.
While electric drayage trucks are not yet widely deployed in the region, the Port Authority is helping companies move toward newer, cleaner models through its Truck Replacement Program. The program provides up to $25,000 to truck owners ready to replace their old truck for a newer truck. So far, it has helped fund the replacement of more than 900 outdated trucks with cleaner models. The roadmap outlines further potential steps to grow alternative fuel infrastructure, as the agency works to ease the transition for trucking companies switching to battery electric trucks through the installation of new charging equipment.
On the water, the industry is in the early stages of transitioning to low- and zero-emission marine fuels. In the interim, the agency’s Clean Vessel Incentive program encourages fuel conservation and voluntary moves to curb engine emissions . That includes a Vessel Speed Reduction component, rewarding ships that travel slower and burn less fuel through the region. Additional financial incentives are available for ships calling at the port that meet new engine standards or use alternative fuels such as LNG or methanol. In 2021, the program took more than 25,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions out of the air, which is equivalent to taking more than 5,000 cars off the road.
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