The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security on April 28 expanded export restrictions for high-technology dual-use items subject to the Export Administration Regulations and destined for Russia, in response to ongoing crisis in eastern and southern Ukraine. President Barack Obama said on April 28 the U.S. shouldn’t allow for possible military exports to the country “in this kind of climate.” The Russian government did not honor its commitment to de-escalate the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, said the White House in a press release.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 14 upheld a lower court ruling in a contentious dispute over CBP’s reclassification of white sauce imported by International Custom Products. As it had foreshadowed during oral argument, CAFC ruled that a CBP notice of action effectively revoked a 1999 ruling letter on the white sauce, which means it was an “interpretive ruling or decision” that should have been subject to notice and comment under 19 USC 1625(c).

Mexico's Diario Oficial of April 11 lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website April 10, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.

LAS VEGAS -- The question of how to accredit continuing education classes for customs brokers continues to bedevil CBP, but the agency is starting to make some progress toward a proposed rule, said Heather Sykes, CBP branch chief-Broker Management, at the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America annual conference April 9. CBP has started work on its economic impact analysis on continuing education requirements, a necessary step before drafting a proposed rule. Rather than issue all of its "role of the broker" changes at once, CBP is now considering breaking the changes out into several "packages" of proposed regulations. One package would be the continuing education proposed rule, which Sykes very tentatively said could come in 2015. Others will address importer bona fides and broker employee reporting requirements.

The Animal and Plant Health is updating its regulations on permits for importation and interstate movement of plant and plant products, in a final rule that takes effect May 12. The final rule places permit regulations into a single section of the import quarantine regulations that would apply permit application, approval, and revocation procedures to a wide variety of plants and plant products regulated under 7 CFR 319. The new permit requirements would also apply to importation of honeybees and honeybee semen, and noxious weeds.

A customs broker is off the hook for alleged violations of the federal pesticide regulations, after an administrative law judge on March 6 dismissed an Environmental Protection Agency civil penalty proceeding. EPA had accused Mara Shipping of failing to file required notices of arrival on several shipments of pesticides. It originally requested a $172,500 penalty, according to Mara. But Mara argued customs brokers aren’t responsible for filing notices of arrival. The fight paid off, as EPA withdrew its complaint in late February. EPA did not respond for comment on why it dropped the case.

The Commerce Department published notices in the April 1 Federal Register on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):

The Commerce Department is giving advance notice that it and the International Trade Commission will next month consider revoking the antidumping duty order on saccharin from China (A-570-878) in their automatic five-year sunset reviews scheduled to begin in May. Advance notice is given because sunset reviews have short deadlines. An order will be revoked unless Commerce finds that revocation would lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and the ITC finds that revocation would result in continuation or recurrence of material injury to a U.S. industry. As a result, a negative determination by either Commerce or the ITC would result in the revocation of these orders.

The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission began the five-year Sunset Reviews of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on citric acid and citrate salts from China and Canada (A-122-853, A-570-937/C-570-938).