On March 1, 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency and a group of leading apparel and footwear brands, retailers, manufacturers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and academic experts launched the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which aims to create a common industry-wide tool to measure the environmental and social performance of apparel products and the supply chains that produce them.
The Office of Textiles and Apparel announces the "Sourcing in the Americas Summit and Pavilion" on August 21-24, 2011 in Las Vegas, NV. This event will feature a Department of Commerce Pavilion with exhibitors representing the entire Americas supply chain as well as a Summit on August 21 and 22. The Summit will feature a series of seminars with key U.S. government decision makers and top executives of textile, apparel and footwear suppliers and importers discussing sourcing in the Americas. The deadline to exhibit is May 19, 2011.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced a closed meeting on April 27, 2011, in which the staff will brief the Commission on various compliance matters.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is announcing that a proposed collection of information has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review and approval, Prize Competitions and Contests. CPSC intends to establish contests and give awards to members of the public to further the mission of the CPSC. CPSC previously published a 60-day notice requesting public comment on the proposed collection of information in November 2010. No comments were received.
The Office of Textiles and Apparel has issued and posted to its website monthly reports containing official February 2011 trade data from the Census Department for U.S. imports and exports of textiles and apparel.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an update to its 2007 instructions on providing documents when CBP requests them that substantiate a claim that textiles and wearing apparel meet a preference program’s rules of origin. The update indicates that an affidavit from the raw material producer is no longer the only “primary” documentation that CBP will accept. In addition, a centralized office can supply such documentation, rather than the production sites.
The Office of Textiles and Apparel announces that the Official Journal of the European Union has published notice of the March 31, 2011 expiration of antidumping measures on footwear with uppers of leather from China and Vietnam. The European Commission also announces that it will monitor for one year imports of footwear with uppers of leather originating in China and Vietnam, as well as those consigned from Macao SAR. (See ITT's Online Archives or 03/18/11 news, 11031847, for BP summary of the EC's announcement of the expiration of these measures.)
The Office of Textiles and Apparel reports that the Turkish Council of Ministers has approved the July 21, 2011 implementation of provisional customs tariffs on imports of certain woven fabrics and certain apparel and apparel accessories, as part of an investigation into whether safeguard duties are needed. The rates levied may be adjusted if the safeguard is found necessary, or refunded if safeguard action is determined to not be needed.