Hong Kong confirmed that calcium carbonate is permitted for use as a food-coloring additive for goods from the U.S., USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service said in a recent report. USDA said it had asked Hong Kong for clarification on the issue because Hong Kong’s positive list of chemicals under its food regulations doesn't “explicitly” list calcium carbonate. USDA said this “welcomed decision” was recently posted by the Hong Kong Center for Food Safety on its website.

The Treasury Department is seeking public comments on an information collection involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.’s expanded jurisdiction under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018. FIRRMA expanded CFIUS jurisdiction to allow it to review certain non-controlling foreign investments, certain real estate transactions involving foreign parties and more. Comments on the collection are due by Dec. 27.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection involving the procedure for entities on the Unverified List or Entity List to request removal or “modification” of their placement on either list. Public comments on the collection are due Jan. 24.

Defense Security Cooperation Agency recently published a new policy memo on certain foreign military sales cases with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Supply and Procurement Agency. The memo “provides updated, temporary guidance” for certain FMS sales to NATO.

The Commerce Department is accepting nominations for its Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, it said. Commerce "seeks members who, by virtue of their current roles and past experience, bring a track record of effective senior executive leadership on issues impacting the U.S. and global supply chains," the agency said. Applications will be accepted until Dec. 8. Commerce is seeking members for the current two-year term, which ends Nov. 9, 2023.

MSC, one of the world’s leading container shipping lines, denied allegations made by a logistics company that it violated the Shipping Act, saying this week that the company’s October complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission (see 2210260029) was “so vague and ambiguous as to make it impractical” to “submit a reasonable answer.” MSC said it didn’t fail to provide adequate time to return containers for U.S.-based MVM Logistics and denied a host of other allegations by the company, including that it committed unfair shipping and handling practices that MVM said left it with $800,000 in fines.

The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security will hold a webinar Dec. 8 to discuss information technology modernization updates. The webinar will include an overview of recent updates to DDTC’s Defense Export Control and Compliance System, BIS’s “IT Modernization roadmap” and the two agencies’ “collaboration efforts on data sharing and customer experience opportunities.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on information collection related to foreign availability procedures. BIS collects foreign availability information to determine whether U.S.-controlled exports are available from a foreign country “in sufficient quantity and of comparable quality so as to render the control ineffective.” Comments are due Jan. 23.

The Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking public comments on an information collection involving reports of requests for restrictive trade practices or boycotts. BIS said it uses the information to “monitor requests for participation in foreign boycotts against countries friendly to the U.S.” and analyzes the information to “note changing trends and to decide upon appropriate action to be taken to carry out” U.S. policy of discouraging boycotts of U.S. allies. Comments are due Jan. 23.

The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports again postponed by one month a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers (see 2110280031), the two ports announced Nov. 18. The ports had planned to begin imposing the fee a year ago, in November 2021, but postponed it each week until July 29, when the ports announced their first one-month postponement (see 2207290053). The latest one-month extension delays the effective date until Dec. 16.