The Journal of Commerce reports that China's announcement last month that it was eliminating rebates of value-added taxes on 553 categories of Chinese merchandise exports may have been intended to create the impression of making a serious effort to curb its exports to the U.S. Critics say that the real goal of Chinese policymakers is to discourage any punitive measures that some members of the U.S. Congress may want to impose on Chinese imports, but that China would have to be much more aggressive about revaluing its currency to satisfy them. (JoC, dated 07/02/07, www.joc.com)
Reuters reports that Canada started trade talks with Colombia on July 16, 2007 to present Canada as a steadier ally to Colombia than U.S. congressional Democrats, who oppose a free trade deal with Colombia until the country's human rights record improves. (Reuters, dated 07/16/07, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN16363307)
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued an interim rule, effective July 2, 2007, which amends 7 CFR Part 353 to clarify that an International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM 15) quality/treatment mark is an industry-issued certificatefor the export of wood packaging material (WPM), and may only be issued when the organization applying the mark has entered into an agreement with APHIS.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has posted to its Web site both a brief and a detailed summary of the trade promotion agreement (another term for free trade agreement) with Colombia. The U.S.-Colombia TPA was signed in November 2006 and revised on June 28, 2007 to reflect the bipartisan consensus on trade reached in May 2007. (U.S.-Colombia TPA summaries, posted 07/06/07, available at http://www.ustr.gov/Trade_Agreements/Bilateral/Colombia_FTA/Fact_Sheets/Section_Index.html)
The Journal of Commerce reports that while growing in use, environmentally friendly packaging such as minimal, shrink-wrapped or recycled packaging may cause certain warehousing difficulties including increased damage and insurance claims, slow handling, problems withstanding humidity, etc. (JoC, dated 06/18/07, www.joc.com)
Shippers' NewsWire reports that the third erroneous shipment of beef mistakenly sent to South Korea was intended for U.S. use and was sent by a South Korean company in California that exported the products to Korea. Korea's government stopped all U.S. beef imports for four days while it investigated the first two erroneous shipments, which sent 66.4 tons of U.S. beef to Korea in violation of the country's import rules. (SNW, dated 06/21/07, www.americanshipper.com)
On June 15, 2007, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2638, the fiscal year (FY) 2008 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, by a vote of 268 to 150. (Congressional Record dated 06/15/07, available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r110:@FIELD(FLD003d)@FIELD(DDATE20070615).
A Journal of Commerce commentary stated that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can't catch all food-safety problems and that importers also have a responsibility to ensure that the products they are buying are safe, especially considering recent food-safety problems with Chinese exports. An official from the Chinese ministry responsible for inspecting imports and exports was quoted as saying that U.S. food companies "must . . . be very clear about the standards they need and don't just look for a cheap price." (JoC, 06/04/07, available at www.joc.com)
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued an interim rule, effective June 1, 2007, which amends 7 CFR Part 319 to prohibit or restrict the importation of certain articles from Canada that present a risk of being infested with emerald ash borer (EAB).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials recently announced that CBP was developing an "additional" benefit for C-TPAT members designed to reduce container demurrage. (CBP would only require container(s) targeted for exam to be held at ocean terminals for C-TPAT importers instead of all containers listed on the entry; the remaining containers would be allowed to be removed from the terminal.)