The U.S. should focus its efforts during the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) on addressing significant and systemic market access barriers that impede U.S. exports and investment, said a group of House Ways and Means Committee Republicans in a April 27, 2012, letter. The lawmakers sent the letter Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Commerce Secretary John Bryson, and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.
Tim Warren
Timothy Warren is Executive Managing Editor of Communications Daily. He previously led the International Trade Today editorial team from the time it was purchased by Warren Communications News in 2012 through the launch of Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. Tim is a 2005 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection made a final determination that the country of origin of certain Agilent oscilloscopes for purposes of U.S. government procurement is Singapore. The final determination ran in the Federal Register May 1, 2012.
Some Customs broker licenses were inadvertently revoked on November 18, 2011, said U.S. Customs and Border Protection in a notice a the Federal Register notice May 1, 2012.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection approved SGS North America as a commercial gauger and laboratory, according to a notice on that ran in the Federal Register May 1, 2012. SGS is approved to gauge and accredited to test petroleum and petroleum products, organic chemicals and vegetable oils for customs purposes, in accordance with the provisions of 19 CFR 151.12 and 19 CFR 151.13, the notice said. Inquiries regarding the specific test or gauger service this entity is accredited or approved to perform may be directed to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection by calling (202) 344-1060.
U.S. Customs and Border protection issued a minor correction to a previous notice on the tariff-rate quota for tuna. The correction ran in the Federal Register May 1, 2012.
Tropical Shipping USA applied to be a Trade Enforcement Centralized Examination Station (CES) at the port of West Palm Beach, Fla., U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in an information bulletin. The application was the only one submitted in response to the February 23, 2012, Information Bulletin No. 12-011 announcing the West Palm Beach, Fla. CES solicitation period, which ended April 23, 2012.
House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) voiced his support April 26 for plans for a hearing on giving Russia Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) announced by the committee's Chairman, Dave Camp (R-Mich.) Levin said the hearing is long overdue, considering it has been four months since Russia was granted membership to the World Trade Organization.
On April 26 2012, the following trade-related bills and resolutions were introduced:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection sent a reminder that on September 29, 2012, ACS/AMS EDI Ocean Manifest functionality will be transitioned to ACE as part of the ACE eManifest: Rail and Sea Deployment. When this transition takes place, filers will no longer be able transmit or receive data via ACS/AMS, said CBP. Programming changes to comply with the modified record formats must be made in order to continue filing manifests electronically pursuant to the Trade Act of 2002, it said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of April 23.