Claims and counter-claims about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement flew Wednesday at a lively European Parliament Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee workshop on the controversial treaty. Much of the criticism of ACTA is based on very selective readings of its text, said Anders Jessen, head of unit for public procurement and intellectual property (IP) at the European Commissioner for Trade Directorate. He constantly urged foes to cite chapter and verse on where the agreement allegedly violates fundamental rights.
The Federal Maritime Commission said the following have filed applications for a license as a Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVO) and/or Ocean Freight Forwarder (OFF)-Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI) pursuant to section 19 of the Shipping Act of 1984 as amended (46 U.S.C. Chapter 409 and 46 CFR 515). Interested persons may contact the Office of Transportation Intermediaries, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, D.C. 20573, 202-523-5843 or at OTI@fmc.gov.:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted petitions for a rehearing of GPX International Tire Corp. v. United States, in which CAFC ruled in December 2011 that countervailing duties may not be imposed on goods from China or other non-market economies (NME), in light of the new law upholding the application of CV duties to NME countries. CAFC remanded the case to the Court of International Trade to determine the legislation's constitutionality, in particular that of a "special rule" created by varying effective dates in the provision that, in this case,and according to CAFC "perhaps a few others," allow both antidumping and CV duties to be imposed without providing a mechanism to account for potential double counting.
Direct Resource Inc. has agreed to pay the government $450,000 to resolve allegations that the company falsely claimed payment in violation of the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), which prohibits the sale of products to federal agencies from countries that do not have a reciprocal trade agreement with the United States, the Justice Department said May 8, 2012.
Immersion CEO Victor Viegas indicated on an earnings call that he was unfazed by the patent application covering haptics technology that Apple filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). The application “still has quite a ways to go in terms of surviving the PTO examination” process, “especially in light of all of our prior art” on such technology, which Immersion received patents for, he said. “Even if that application were to be granted in some form,” it would not eliminate the need for Immersion’s technology, he said.
The Census Bureau posted the May 2012 AES Newsletter to its website. The newsletter contains articles that provide guidance on, among other things: (1) the new AES Compliance Rate for filers; (2) its report on importing and exporting companies for 2009-10; (3) how to report the NVOCC "booking number"; (4) the DSP-5 Foreign End User as Ultimate Consignee for AES; (5) new features available in USA Trade Online; and (6) AES Broadcast messages.
This is a reminder that the additional duties on certain passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, imposed for a three-year period as a Section 421 safeguard, are set to expire on September 25, 2012. Under the current statute, the President may extend the safeguard measures until December 2013, following an investigation by the International Trade Commission initiated on the basis of a request by the President (the statute also allows for initiation on the basis of an industry petition, but sources at ITC said that no petition was filed before the statutory deadline). According to sources at ITC, the President has not requested extension of the measure to date.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the Court of International Trade’s affirmance of the International Trade Administration’s remand redetermination, which the ITA completed under protest, of its final results of its 2007 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on certain hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from India (C-533-821). CAFC said the CIT improperly exceeded its authority by requiring the ITA to reopen and supplement the record to admit untimely filed documentation when the Indian respondent and plaintiff, Essar Steel Limited, did not cooperate to the best of its ability.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection released an April update for ACE Trade Account Owners. The update included reminders on the ongoing Document Imaging System (DIS) pilot and the Sept. 29, 2012, effective date for required use of ACE to file advance information for ocean and rail cargo to CBP.