The European Union (EU) is requesting World Trade Organization (WTO) authorization to apply retaliatory sanctions against the U.S. for its failure to bring the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (Byrd Amendment) into conformity with WTO rules by December 27, 2003. The EU states that this deadline for compliance with the WTO Appellate Body's ruling passed without action from U.S. Congress to repeal the measure.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a set of responses to 18 "technical" frequently asked questions (FAQ) related to the Sea Automated Manifest System (AMS) Special Bill process (the new non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) and Master vessel operating common carrier (VOCC) bill types).
CBP has issued messages on a number of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty actions, many of which (marked by an * in the action column) were previously published in the Federal Register by the International Trade Administration (ITA) and summarized in International Trade Today.
The Winter 2003 issue of the NCBFAA Quarterly Bulletin contains an article that states that miscellaneous tariff and trade bills are no longer routine, are not predictable, and may not even be possible. The article notes that such bills have increasingly become the vehicle for solving larger, tougher trade and economic issues that have nothing to do with the tedious technical language of miscellaneous tariff and trade bills. (NBFAA Quarterly Bulletin, No. 103-4, Winter 2003, www.ncbfaa.org.)
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued an interim final rule, effective January 16, 2004, which amends the Chemical Weapons Convention Regulations (CWCR) in 15 CFR Part 711 by adding instructions on how to obtain authorization from BIS to make electronic submissions of declarations and reports required under the CWCR through the Web-Data Entry System for Industry (Web-DESI), etc.
Broker Power has listed the 2004 general (column 1) duty rates for certain knit and crocheted apparel that is subject to a silk blend (SB) and/or non-cotton vegetable fiber (NCVF) category number.
The Commerce Department's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has issued its November 2003 Textiles and Apparel Import Report, which includes statistics on general imports (both quota and non-quota) of cotton, wool, man-made fiber, silk blend, and non-cotton vegetable fiber textiles and apparel.
Broker Power provides quota prices on a monthly basis for certain textile and apparel categories from the People's Republic of China (China) that are publicly traded. (These publicly traded quota prices have been provided by a Hong Kong quota broker.)
Broker Power has listed the 2004 general (column 1) duty rates for certain knit and crocheted apparel that is subject to a wool/fine animal hair (wool) category number. (The fiber that is in chief weight is the first fiber in the written description.)