U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that its Area Port of Champlain of New York will hold a "Trade Day" on March 28, 2012. This event will provide an opportunity for members of the trade community to meet with the CBP and other government officials who are responsible for facilitating the importation of goods while enforcing the various trade laws. There is no cost to attend this event, but on-line registration will be required. Register for the event here. There will be no formal presentations as CBP encourages participants to bring their questions and to interact one-on-one with the regulatory professionals. Representatives from government agencies such as the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Fish & Wildlife (FWS), will also be on hand to answer questions.

In early January 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued instructions for the ten weekly Special Import Quota announcements for Upland Cotton that were issued by the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporation. CBP also listed the dates and quantities for each of the ten. In February and March, CBP added weekly Special Quotas 22 - 26, and Special Quotas 1-3. CBP's instructions, with the new Special Quota 4 are summarized below. (Note that ITT has corrected the typos in the "buy date" column.)

The Port of Long Beach has announced that container trade volume at the Port dropped 15.2 percent overall in February 2012 compared to the same period in 2011. Imports were down 18.1 percent, and exports dipped 1.6 percent. According to the Port, the drop in imports is partly attributable to the early Chinese New Year. Import volumes typically fall following the New Year as factories in Asia close for a week or more during the holidays. Last year, the New Year fell on February 3 and the slow down was felt in the latter part of the month and into early March. This year, the New Year fell on January 23, putting the entire slow down period in February. Import containers accounted for 191,475 TEUs in February 2012 compared to 233,660 TEUs in February 2011 and export containers fell to 120,006 TEUs from 121,929 TEUs. Empty container moves were down 25 percent to 77,108 TEUs compared to 102,747 TEUs in February. Most empty containers are bound overseas.

This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s March 12, 2012 “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly March 12, 2012 “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”¹

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted changes to the Customs and Trade Automated Interface Requirements (CATAIR) since January 2012, which include the following changes related to the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS or KFTA):

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Web site as of March 13, 2012, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. These messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued notice that it is has created a new webpage for information on the U.S. - Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA), that is effective for goods entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption on or after March 15, 2012. The web page currently has links to (i) CBP's implementation instructions, (ii) the text of the agreement on USTR's website, (iii) the (3-page) Presidential proclamation as published in the Federal Register (it begins on page 8), (iv) the ITC report containing the detailed Annexes to the Proclamation, and (iv) the KORUS Implementation Act passed by Congress and signed into law by the President.

On February 28, 2012, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Detroit seized a shipment of Chinese-made toys with high lead paint levels at a Centralized Examination Station (CES). Seventeen boxes of toys valued at $3,744 destined for Flint, Michigan were selected for review by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and examined by CBP.