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

On February 29, 2012, Acting Assistant Commissioner Kevin McAleenan and other U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials testified before the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security on CBP's security and trade facilitation efforts in fiscal year 2011. According to the officials, in FY 2011, CBP officers at 331 ports of entry inspected 340 million travelers and more than 105.9 million cars, trucks, buses, trains, vessels and aircrafts. CBP also processed nearly $2.3 trillion in trade in FY 2011, a 14 percent increase over FY 2010, and collected over $37 billion in total duties, taxes, and fees, as well as over $355 million in antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD). CBP officers also conducted 24,800 seizures of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) violations.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has newly posted the recordings and presentation slides for three webinars that are a part of a series of live trade outreach webinars that CBP hosts and subsequently makes available online. The newly posted webinars include: (1) the PIC Business Case ITDS Report on the use of e-commerce data such as global product numbers and electronic product catalogs; (2) running the new Multi-Modal Manifest Reports in ACE; and (3) Rail and Carrier ACE Portal navigation. Topics of previous webinars available for viewing include the role of the broker, account management restructuring, ACE Post Summary Corrections, simplified entry and financial processes, cargo security risks, ACE courtesy notices of liquidation, etc.

The Port of Long Beach has provided an update on the project to replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge, which was built in the 1960s and was not designed to handle the present-day volume of traffic. Four pre-qualified construction firms are expected to compete for the contract to design and build a bridge that will replace the Gerald Desmond Bridge. The $950 million construction project is expected to take five years and generate an average of 4,000 jobs during each year of construction. Bids are due March 2, 2012 and the construction contract will be awarded later in 2012, with full construction beginning in 2013.

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 February 29, 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 has announced that it recently added a new "Trade Transformation" page under its "Trade" section on CBP.gov. The new page provides information on the Centers of Excellence and Expertise (CEE), Simplified Process, Role of the Broker, contact information for these trade transformation initiatives, and provides a link to the ACE: Modernization Information System page. The Simplified Process page provides information on the Simplified Entry (SE) and Simplified Summary initiatives. CBP has recently updated the SE Pilot Frequently Asked Questions (Technical) document on the Simplified Process page to include more information on the upcoming pilot. The new Trade Transformation page is available here.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a matrix of Directorate of Defense Trade Control licensable shipment reporting requirements for the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR). The matrix lists the Department of State (DOS)/DDTC License type, the AES license code, the reported dates elements, and additional edits and validations. CBP has also posted AESTIR Appendix F - License and License Exemption Type Codes (here) and Appendix O - DDTC ITAR Exemption Codes (here), as well as an AES Records Format document (here). A "Summary of Changes" to the June 2004 AES Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) lists the specific DOS, DDTC, ITAR and export license changes specific to each posted document. All listed changes have an effective date of March 30, 2012. DDTC Licensable Shipment Matrix available here. Summary of Changes to AESTIR available here.

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

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of February 27, 2012.

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