The Commerce Department will lead a business development mission to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The March 8-14 mission, which will be lead by the Secretary of Commerce, will focus on infrastructure sectors including project management and engineering, renewable energy, smart grid and energy efficiency, and environmental technologies, Commerce said. In each country, participants will meet with pre-screened potential agents, distributors, representatives, and other business partners and government officials. The mission will be open to 20-25 companies, with applications due by Jan. 17.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) denied export privileges for Donald Bernardo for five years from the Nov. 16, 2011 date of Bernando’s conviction for knowingly and willfully negotiating and arranging contracts, purchases, sales, and transfers of defense articles involving Venezuela. Bernando was convicted of selling C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, in return for a fee, commission and other consideration, without first registering with the State Department. BIS provided Bernando an opportunity to make a written submission regarding the denial decision, but BIS said Bernando did not submit a statement.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Dec. 11:
The Obama Administration is amending the Export Administration Regulations by adding 36 persons under 46 entries to the Entity List, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) said. The Entity List is a compilation of entities that the administration deems likely to engage in the export, reexport or transfer of weapons of mass destruction. The administration is also revising three existing entries and removing one entry.
The Foreign-Trade Zones Board granted approval to the Northwest Iowa Development Corporation to establish FTZ 288 under the Alternative Site Framework. The new zone will cover Cherokee, Lyon, O'Brien, Osceola, Plymouth and Sioux Counties, Iowa, and will be adjacent to the Sioux Falls CBP port of entry.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Dec. 6:
The Brownsville Navigation District has submitted an application to the Foreign-Trade Zones Board to reorganize FTZ 62 under the Alternative Site Framework, said FTZB in a Federal Register notice. Under the reorganization, the FTZ service area would cover Cameron County, Texas. ASF streamlines processes for designation of new FTZ subzones and usage driven sites within the larger service area. It allows companies to request zone status through the relatively simple "minor boundary modification" process. Comments on the application are due by Feb. 7.
The U.S. Commercial Service will host an Automated Export System (AES) Compliance Seminar and an AESPcLink Workshop in Milwaukee, Wis. on Dec. 16-17, the Census Bureau said. The events were originally scheduled on Oct. 9-10, but were canceled due to the government shutdown. Census Bureau experts will cover Foreign Trade Regulations filing requirements and provide an overview of AES at the seminar. Commerce Department and Department of Homeland Security officials will provide training on AESPcLink filing at the workshop. The event details are as follows:
The Foreign-Trade Zones Board posted guidance for grantees on streamlined zone schedule requirements set forth in a 2012 final rule (see 12030212). In contrast to FTZB’s pre-2012 zone schedule requirements, the new regulations eliminated “anything that we did not believe was essential,” FTZB said. So grantees “should not hesitate to remove information from their zone schedule if it is no longer required,” it said. Specifically, FTZB said each zone schedule should include the following:
With operator annual reports becoming due, the Foreign-Trade Zones Board announced a series of webinars covering submission of the reports through the Online FTZ Information System. FTZ operators must submit their reports to the grantee by the deadline set by the grantee, which must then in turn submit its report to the FTZB by March 31. To supplement training videos and tutorials on the FTZB website (here), the board scheduled free webinars Jan. 16 and Feb. 5 for operators on the use of OFIS to fill out and submit annual reports to the grantee. FTZB will set free webinars Jan. 28 and Feb. 26 for grantees on the use of OFIS to finalize and submit annual reports to the FTZB. RSVPs are required two business days prior to each webinar.