U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a general notice announcing that effective August 20, 2007, it has expanded the processes that are supported in the Automated Commercial Environment e-Manifest: Truck system.
Latest Harmonized System updates
Reuters reports that the U.S. expects to complete free trade talks with Malaysia by the end of June 2008. Though the U.S. launched trade talks with Malaysia, its tenth largest trading partner more than a year ago, the negotiations faced an additional challenge after the two countries failed to reach a deal in March - a key deadline under the Bush administration's trade promotion authority, which expired at the end of June. (Reuters, dated 07/16/07, available at http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSSP4759320070716)
The White House has issued a press release announcing that President Bush signed the conference version of H.R. 1, the "Implementing the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007," into law on August 3, 2007. H.R. 1 will, among other things, establish deadlines for 100% scanning of U.S.-bound containers at foreign ports, etc. (White House press release, dated 08/03/07, available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/08/20070803-1.html.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a notice on its Web site entitled Notice of Examination: October 2007 Customs Broker Examination, which announces that the next customs broker license exam will be held on Monday, October 1, 2007.
The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a notice requesting comments regarding the Commerce Control List in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) as part of a systematic review of the CCL.
According to a CNN.com report, Chinese food inspectors have banned meat products from seven U.S. companies from being imported into China after finding a range of contamination issues in shipments checked on July 14, 2007. The article notes that it was not immediately clear if China's ban extended to all products from the seven companies or just to specific products. (CNN.com, dated 07/16/07, available at www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/16/china.meat/index.html.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message regarding Presidential Proclamation 8157 which was recently published in the Federal Register and modifies duty-free under the Generalized System of Preferences, designates Mauritania as an African Growth and Opportunity beneficiary country, and makes technical changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has posted to its Web site an updated version of the 2007 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTS) dated July 2, 2007 (Revision 2).
On June 28, 2007, President Bush issued Proclamation 8157 to modify duty-free treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences, designate Mauritania as an African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beneficiary country1, and make technical changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message which updates its list of tariff numbers that may be subject to the U.S.-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA 2006) entry summary and export permit requirements.