The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of stainless steel wire rod from South Korea for the review period of September 1, 2001 through August 31, 2002.
(a) SSI has an AD rate of zero; no cash deposits will be required although suspension of liquidation will continue.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a notice announcing that it is reopening through May 14, 2004 the comment period for its interim final rule on the registration of foreign food facilities.
On April 2, 2004, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued its third version of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and responses regarding the inbound portion of its final rule requiring the advance electronic presentation of information pertaining to cargo (sea, air, rail, or truck) prior to its being brought into, or sent from, the U.S.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has posted to its Web site the draft text of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) with the Dominican Republic.
On April 6, 2004, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued notices announcing that effective May 1, 2004, the existing textile and apparel visa requirements for Poland are being canceled. Sources had stated that the visa requirements were being cancelled at the request of Poland, due to its accession to the European Union (EU) on May 1, 2004.
According to the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, the Costa Rican government has temporarily suspended for all countries the requirement that exporters must furnish a copy of official export documents for imports to Costa Rica. Costa Rica initially implemented this requirement on March 5, 2004.
The Commerce Department's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has issued its February 2004 Textiles and Apparel Import Report, which includes statistics on general imports (both quota and non-quota) of cotton, wool, man-made fiber, silk blend, and non-cotton vegetable fiber textiles and apparel.
In the April 7, 2004 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 38, No. 15), CBP issued notices (a) proposing to revoke a classification ruling on certain laryngectomy covers, and (b) proposing to revoke two classification rulings on industrial smokehouse apparatus. CBP states that it is also proposing to revoke any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions that are contrary to its position in these notices.
The World Customs Organization (WCO) has issued an amending supplement (No. 4, dated August 2003) to the Harmonized System Explanatory Notes (ENs). (Although not binding on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the ENs are followed by CBP whenever possible.) (This is Part V of a multipart series of summaries on this amending supplement. See future issues of ITT for additional summaries.)