The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) is seeking comments by July 24 on a new data collection for "empty container volumes at intermodal locations," it said in a Federal Register notice. The data collection effort, which would implement certain parts of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, would allow the FMC to gather information on "vessel-level tonnage as well as full and empty containers entering and leaving U.S. ports." It would also allow the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) to collect "operational data on intermodal equipment and dwell times."
Orient Overseas Container Line denied allegations that it violated U.S. shipping regulations, saying a complaint filed by Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) in April (see 2305010049 and 2305020019) was "an unfortunate campaign to distort and obfuscate the relevant facts, contracts and law, in order to secure an unwarranted return." The container line said neither the statements in BBBY's complaint "nor the text of the contracts themselves" support claims that OOCL breached its contracts.
The International Trade Commission recently released Revision 5 to the 2023 Harmonized Tariff Schedule, which extended four COVID-related product exclusions covered by secondary subheading 9903.88.66 until June 1, 2023 (see 2305120054). Those products are currently exempted from additional duties imposed by Section 301 tariffs of 25% under subheading 9903.88.01.
A think tank representative and an official from the Federation of German Industries disagreed about how to judge the success of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council, but participants at a think tank discussion of the TTC and friend-shoring agreed that deciding who is a friend, how to compensate businesses for the costs of supply chain resiliency and values-based sourcing and how to balance domestic politics and friend-shoring are all complicated questions.
The Federal Maritime Commission on May 11 alerted industry that several of its applications are experiencing issues with email notifications. The affected applications are Form 1, Form 18, OTI Renewals, Form 65 Renewals, eMonitoring, eAgreements and BCL Fileroom, it said. The FMC Office of Information Technology is troubleshooting.
Federal agencies led by the DHS' Homeland Security Investigations unit carried out a court-authorized search on May 8 of a JinkoSloar plant in Jacksonville, Florida, an FBI spokesperson confirmed to International Trade Today.
Some supply chain agreements in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework may be announced in May, according to officials at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and the institute held a webinar May 3 and released a paper with recommendations of how to shape the supply chain pillar ahead of those announcements.
NEW ORLEANS -- CBP will run a second tabletop exercise for cybersecurity focused on carriers, Trade Modernization Branch Chief Kyle Griffin announced April 24 at the annual National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference. CBP held a similar tabletop exercise in February, which led to new guidance to help customs brokers plan for cybersecurity incidents (see 2304100051). The new tabletop exercise will focus on carriers and will incorporate some of what CBP learned from the previous exercise on brokers, Griffin said. He didn't provide a timetable for the second exercise but said they help CBP better understand its gaps in helping to prevent cyberattacks.
The current administration and subsequent ones are unlikely to remove Trump-era tariffs on China “because of the pressure of the labor vote, which is really the swing vote in this country right now,” said Anna Ashton, director of China corporate affairs with the Eurasia Group, speaking during an April 21 event hosted by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. She said she doesn't see either political party moving to repeal the measures.
The Federal Maritime Commission this week posted an instructional video on how to file a charge complaint. Charge complaints were established by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (see 2207140045). The video includes information about "the types of charges that can be contested, the materials needed to file a complaint, how investigations are conducted, and potential outcomes," according to an FMC press release.