The Commerce Department is setting new procedures for “Expedited Trade Missions” with shorter recruitment timelines (here). Under the expedited procedures, recruitment and selection for export promotion missions will take place over two to three weeks, with deadlines “extremely compressed” for making arrangements to participate, said Commerce. Rather than issue a Federal Register notice for expedited trade missions, Commerce will post a notice on its website (here). Given the short timelines, Commerce is also creating a “Ready Applicant Pool” of companies ready “to send a high-level representative to participate on an expedited trade mission to any location, at any time, on very short notice,” it said (here).
The Commerce Department is seeking comment on any subsidies, including stumpage subsidies, provided by countries exporting softwood lumber or softwood lumber products to the U.S. during the period July 31 through Dec, 31, 2014 (here). Comments are due by May 26.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for April 23:
The Commerce Department added eight entries to the Entity List (here). The list, administered by Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, informs the public of entities that have allegedly engaged in activities that could facilitate the spread of weapons of mass destruction. BIS requires license for exports to these entities, but the agency typically denies license requests. License exceptions for transactions with companies and individuals on the Entity List are very rare, the agency says. BIS added the following entries to the Entity List:
The Commerce Department issued its quarterly update (here) to its annual list of foreign government subsidies on articles of cheese subject to an in-quota rate of duty that were imported during the period Oct. 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2014.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for April 16:
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for April 14:
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for April 13:
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for April 10:
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for April 8: