The following are documents which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) updates frequently (weekly, monthly, etc.). Updates are listed under "What's New" on its Web site:
The International Trade Administration (ITA) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) have issued various notices, each initiating automatic five-year Sunset Reviews on the above-listed antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders.
American Shipper's Shippers' NewsWire reports that a trade association has condemned a deal worked out last week between the Bush administration and two senators who have held up legislation to grant Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status to Vietnam. In exchange for the senators' removal of their hold, the Bush administration will work to ensure that the U.S. textile industry is not harmed when Vietnam joins the WTO, by for example, considering self-initiating an antidumping (AD) case for garments. (The U.S. must remove its quotas on Vietnamese textiles and apparel when Vietnam joins the WTO if PNTR has been granted to Vietnam, among other things). (AS, dated 10/02/06, www.americanshipper.com )
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memo which provides an overview of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 20061 (Act) that was signed into law on August 17, 2006 as Public Law (P.L.) 109-280.
CBP has recently posted the following to its Web site:
Embattled P2P company Lime Wire fired back a hefty salvo against the RIAA in one of the last remaining P2P infringement suits. Nearly every other sued company has closed shop or promised to move to an RIAA-blessed licensed model. But Lime Wire went to the core of RIAA’s digital music strategy the past several years, arguing in counterclaims that the trade group has conspired to fix prices and drive P2P companies out of business by refusing to license them on standard terms. In a novel argument, Lime Wire said the major labels were colluding with each other through iMesh, the first P2P client to relaunch with licenses (WID June 30/05 p5).
The Secretary of Commerce has issued a press release announcing that on September 19, 2006, the Senate passed H.R. 5684, implementing legislation for the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The Senate had previously passed such legislation under a Senate bill number (S. 3569), but was required to pass the legislation under a House bill number. (See ITT's Online Archives or 07/25/06 news, 06072599 1, for previous BP summary on the passage by the House and Senate of U.S.-Oman FTA implementing legislation. (Press release, dated 09/19/06, available at http://www.commerce.gov/opa/press/Secretary_Gutierrez/2006_Releases/September/19_Gutierrez_US-Oman_FreeTrade_Agreement_stmnt.htm.)
The Court of International Trade has issued a decision in the case Michael Simon Design, Inc. v. U.S. which upholds the importer's view that sweaters with certain Christmas or Halloween motifs are classified as "festive articles" in Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 9505 (duty- and quota-free).
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice announcing that it is revoking the antidumping (AD) duty orders on antifriction bearings and parts thereof (spherical plain) from France (ITA case A-427-801, CBP case A-427-205) and antifriction bearings and parts thereof (ball bearings) from Singapore (ITA case A-559-801 and CBP case A-559-201).
(BP is reissuing its summary of this CBP guide, which appeared in the September 18, 2006 ITT, 06091805, in order to delete all of CBP's references to Truck AMS (Automated Manifest System), as AMS is under ACS, and CBP's E-Manifest: Truck, though also an automated system, is under ACE (the Automated Commercial Environment). Other conforming changes are also made to BP's summary.)