The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is amending side marker requirements under the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard for lamps on vehicles 80 inches or more in width and less than 30 feet long, in a final rule (here). The new standard, which will take effect Aug. 8 with optional early compliance, restores provisions that were accidentally modified in 2007, said NHTSA.
Correction: Information is available (here) on public webinars planned by the National Marine Fisheries Service on Feb. 18 and Feb. 28, as well as a "public listening session" in Boston March 7, to discuss its Feb. 5 proposal to set new filing, recordkeeping and permitting requirements for high-risk seafood species (see 1602040020).
Renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) provides unique opportunities for vertical integration in Africa’s apparel industry, said American Apparel & Footwear Association Executive Vice President Stephen Lamar in testimony submitted to the International Trade Commission (here). “Ten years of uninterrupted duty free access, combined with state-of-the-art flexible rules of origin, give us both the timeframe and wherewithal to generate demand for local production of these inputs,” Lamar said in prepared remarks. Congress in June reinstated the 15-year-old unilateral preferences program until 2025. Lamar said AGOA renewal could trailblaze the advancement of manufacturing of apparel materials on the continent, noting that while raw inputs—including cotton, petroleum for synthetics, and cattle for hides—reside there, intermediate materials are almost always imported.
A ban on importation of 201 species of newt and salamander took effect Jan. 28, according to a public bulletin from the Fish and Wildlife Service (here). FWS had listed the species as “injurious” under the Lacey Act in a Jan. 13 Federal Register notice (here), due to their potential to spread a fungus that kills salamanders. The ban applies to importation of any live or dead specimen, including for transit through the U.S., of the genera Chioglossa, Cynops, Euproctus, Hydromantes, Hynobius, Ichthyosaura, Lissotriton, Neurergus, Notophthalmus, Onychodactylus, Paramesotriton, Plethodon, Pleurodeles, Salamandra, Salamandrella, Salamandrina, Siren, Taricha, Triturus, and Tylototriton, but not to eggs or gametes or specimens imported under permit for zoological, educational, medical, or scientific purposes. Exportation is still allowed from a designated port or under a designated port exception permit, but must occur directly from the state where the specimen is present due to a ban on interstate transport.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would bring net GDP losses of 0.54 percent for the U.S. and 0.12 percent for Japan after 10 years, and economic gains for other participating countries would be negligible, according to the executive summary of a recently released TPP study done by Tufts University (here). The study, “Trading Down: Unemployment, Inequality and Other Risks of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement,” refutes several income-related findings of another study (here) just released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (see 1601250020). Contrary to the Peterson study, Tufts’ research projects a small net income loss and worsening income inequality in the U.S., as well as a loss of 500,000 jobs in the U.S.
A Chinese national on Jan. 27 was sentenced at U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with supplying a U.S.-designated proliferator of Iranian weapons of mass destruction with 1,185 pressure transducers that could be used in the production of weapons-grade uranium, the Justice Department said (here). U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti Saris sentenced Chinese citizen Sihai Cheng to nine years in prison after Cheng in December pled guilty to two counts of conspiring to commit export violations and smuggle goods from the U.S. to Iran and four counts of illegally exporting U.S.-made pressure transducers to Iran, DOJ said.
The Energy Department is amending energy efficiency standards for commercial prerinse spray valves, in a final rule (here). Compliance with the amended standards is required for covered products manufactured or imported on or after Jan. 28, 2019.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership by 2030 will boost anticipated yearly U.S. exports by 9 percent, to $357 billion above baseline estimates, immediately cut three-quarters of tariffs, and eliminate 99 percent of tariffs among all 12 member countries when fully implemented, a new study released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics states (here). Co-authored by PIIE visiting fellow Peter Petri and Michael Plummer, director of Johns Hopkins’ Europe division of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, the study that combined exports of all countries will increase by more than $1 trillion, or 11.5 percent, per year after TPP is implemented. Furthermore, the study says that delaying the pact’s implementation by one year would bring a $77 billion loss to the U.S. economy. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said earlier this month that the Obama Administration hopes the agreement will enter force by early 2018. Expected to “generate substantial gains” for the U.S., Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam, and create “solid benefits for other members,” the pact will also prohibit tariffs on e-commerce, and should help small- and medium-sized enterprises gain better access to online platforms and to ease their regulatory compliance burdens.
The Energy Department is setting new energy efficiency standards (here) and test procedures (here) for pumps. The agency’s final rules define pumps as “equipment that is designed to move liquids (which may include entrained gases, free solids, and totally dissolved solids) by physical or mechanical action and includes at least a bare pump and, if included by the manufacturer at the time of sale, mechanical equipment, driver, and controls.” The new test procedures apply for any representations of certain specifications made on or after July 25. Compliance with the new energy efficiency standards is required for pumps manufactured or imported on or after Jan. 27, 2020.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the Jan. 19 Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):