The following are trade-related highlights of the Executive Communications sent to Congress for March 16, 2012:
Brian Feito
Brian Feito is Managing Editor of International Trade Today, Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. A licensed customs broker who spent time at the Department of Commerce calculating antidumping and countervailing duties, Brian covers a wide range of subjects including customs and trade-facing product regulation, the courts, antidumping and countervailing duties and Mexico and the European Union. Brian is a graduate of the University of Florida and George Mason University. He joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2012.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology posts drafts and changes to foreign technical regulations for manufactured products that may be considered technical barriers to trade. Broker Power delays its publication of these postings for 2 - 3 weeks as there is often a delay until NIST makes the text of the regulations available.
Officials at the U.S.-Panama Business Council state that the Panamanian Minister for Commerce and Industry, Ricardo Quijano, has set a goal of October 1, 2012 for the implementation of the U.S.-Panama Free Trade Agreement. Quijano attended the recent “Panama Week” conference held March 15-16 in Washington, DC.
The Food and Drug Administration is posting filer evaluation outcomes online, prospectively, starting from the beginning of fiscal year 2012, to help increase the accuracy of the information submitted to FDA and the accountability among the actors in the supply chain. This list will be updated monthly, and FDA will post the most recent outcome for each filer. The FDA states that, because this list is prospective, and updated monthly, interested parties should not make any inferences with regard to the status of filers that do not have filer evaluation outcomes posted on this site.
On March 13, 2012 the Coast Guard denied a petition to amend the regulations concerning foreign-rebuilt determinations for vessels entitled to a coastwise trade endorsement. The Coast Guard denied the petition because, among other reasons, (i) a settled understanding of the regulation now exists due to court decisions, (ii) the proposal would result in onerous new requirements for any applicant seeking to have work done at a foreign shipyard, and (iii) the proposed amendments would make the Jones Act inconsistent with national treatment obligations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994.
The Bureau of Industry and Security announced that the National Defense Stockpile Market Impact Committee, co-chaired by the Departments of Commerce and State, is seeking public comments by April 19, 2012, on the potential market impact of a proposed supplement to the Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Materials Plan. The Defense Logistics Agency proposes to establish three new material research and development projects involving cadmium zinc tellurium (CZT) substrates, trichlorobenzene (TCB), and rhenium alloy.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a reminder that U.S. firms are required to submit their calendar year 2011 annual reports on offsets agreements related to sales of defense articles or defense services to foreign countries or foreign firms by June 15, 2012. Reports are required to contain information on: (1) contracts for the sale of defense articles or defense services to foreign countries or foreign firms that are subject to offsets agreements exceeding $5,000,000 in value; and (2) offsets transactions completed in performance of existing offsets commitments for which offsets credit of $250,000 or more has been claimed from the foreign representative.
The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled from March 20-23:
The International Trade Administration has issued a fact sheet announcing its affirmative final determinations in the antidumping duty investigations of bottom mount combination refrigerator-freezers from Korea and Mexico (A-580-865 and A-201-839, respectively), and the countervailing duty investigation of the same product from Korea (C-580-866), its finding of targeted dumping for two companies from Korea, and its finding of AD critical circumstances for one company from Mexico.
On March 19, 2012 the following trade-related bill was introduced: