The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Feb. 11:

The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Feb. 7:

The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Feb. 6:

Rebecca Blank’s title is now “Deputy Secretary of Commerce” instead of acting secretary, although she “continues to perform the duties of Secretary,” according to her biography on the Commerce Department website. Blank had held the title of acting secretary since former Secretary John Bryson’s resignation in June 2012. The Vacancies Reform Act only allows unappointed officials to hold “acting” status for 210 days, with some exceptions, although Commerce declined to say if the title change was related to the law. David Aguilar of CBP went from acting commissioner to deputy commissioner in August because of the Vacancies Reform Act time limit (see ITT’s Online Archives 12091219 for summary).

The International Trade Administration is asking U.S. vendors capable of exporting goods or services relevant to the Next Generation Air Transportation System and that are interested in participating in the NextGen Solutions Vendors Guide to identify themselves by March 29. The NextGen system meets the requirements of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) initiative, the ITA said, and addresses the ICAO ASBU-designated performance improvement areas of: (a) airport operations, (b) globally interoperable systems and data, (c) optimum capacity and flexible flights, and (d) efficient flight paths. The NextGen guide will highlight the U.S. producers and suppliers who indicate that they have products that can be used to implement one or more NextGen solutions.

The International Trade Administration is delaying its energy and infrastructure trade mission to Egypt until April 14-16, and extending the application deadline for the trade mission until March 14. The trade mission will no longer go to Kuwait, as had originally been announced in a December Federal Register notice. The trade mission will include the following sectors: electric power infrastructure, building products and design and construction, and safety and security.

The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Feb. 1:

The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements determined that certain cotton/polyester three-thread circular knit fleece fabric is not available in commercial quantities in Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement countries, and is adding the fabric to the CAFTA-DR to the list at Annex 3.25 of the agreement in unrestricted quantities. This fabric may now be sourced from outside CAFTA-DR countries for use in CAFTA-DR qualifying textile and apparel products. Intradeco Apparel asked for the commercial availability determination, and no interested parties responded to the request. Specifications for the fabric are as follows:

The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Jan. 28:

Differences between the official trade statistics produced by the U.S. and China are narrowing, a report by the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade Statistics Working Group said. Its second phase report on the statistical discrepancy of merchandise trade between the two countries updated a March 2010 report. The two nations each publish data that measures the bilateral merchandise trade flows between them, but while both follow international statistical standards, differences in the statistics arise as a result of data and methodological differences, the Department of Commerce said.