U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of April 18, 2005. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, UAFTA and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 04/18/05, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
Questions remained unanswered Mon. after Electronics Boutique (EB) and GameStop said they had entered into a definitive merger deal that will see the latter buy EB for about $1.44 billion -- 70% cash and 30% in common stock. The combined company, to be named GameStop, will have annual sales of about $3.8 billion and more than 3,200 stores in the U.S. and about 600 international stores. It’s expected to become the #1 U.S. retailer of videogames, behind only Wal-Mart.
A coalition of Internet trade groups and publishers filed briefs in Apple v. Does Mon., urging the Cal. Court of Appeals to defend e-mail privacy and protect reporters’ confidential sources. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is appealing a Santa Clara County Superior Court decision in the case that lets Apple subpoena a reporter’s e-mail to learn the source of information on a story published about a forthcoming FireWire audio interface for GarageBand software code-named “Asteroid” or “Q7.”
A U.S. claim of victory in a dispute with Antigua over Internet gaming (WID April 8 p2) is “spin put on by the American administration,” Sportingbet (U.K.) Group CEO Nigel Payne told Washington Internet Daily. Last week the World Trade organization (WTO) Appellate Body ruled a U.S. ban on online gambling inconsistent with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and recommended the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ask the U.S. to bring its laws into conformity. The panel also said the U.S. had shown its laws are “necessary to protect public morals or maintain public order.” And it ordered the U.S. to clarify an issue related to online gambling on horse races.
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) duty orders and countervailing (CV) duty orders.
According to the Washington File, the World Health Organization (WHO) has increased the official number of bird flu cases confirmed in humans to 74, up from 69. Forty-nine of these cases have resulted in deaths. The latest new cases were confirmed in Cambodia and Vietnam. These two nations, along with Thailand, are the only countries that have reported human deaths from avian influenza. (Washington File Pub 03/31/05, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/gi/Archive/2005/Apr/01-476194.html)
On March 18, 2005, the Court of International Trade (CIT), among other things, denied the U.S. government's request that it dismiss with respect to jurisdictional issues a complaint filed by the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA) that seeks review of CITA's decision to consider "threat-based" China textile safeguard petitions. The CIT also deferred ruling on the U.S.' motion to dismiss the case because of substantive claims.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted the following documents to its Web site:
The U.S. Census Bureau (Census) has issued a proposed rule to amend the Foreign Trade Statistics Regulations (FTSR, 15 CFR Part 30)1 in order to require mandatory filing of export information through the Automated Export System (AES) or AESDirect for all shipments where a Shipper's Export Declaration (SED) is currently required, etc.
Tex. Attorney Gen. Greg Abbott (R) filed a landmark lawsuit against Vonage for failing to make clear to customers that the firm’s service doesn’t provide access to traditional emergency 911 service. The suit, filed under the Tex. Deceptive Trade Practices Act, charges Vonage with “misrepresenting the type of emergency telephone service it offers, and the fact that the ‘911 dialing’ feature is not automatically included when a customer signs up for telephone service.” Abbott seeks $20,000 per violation.