The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) and USA*Engage gave Congress overall positive scores in a new interim report card on trade issues. Some 64 percent of Senators and 43 percent of Representatives received an A or B for "enacting trade legislation critical to U.S. economic growth and job creation," they said. Most legislative movement had to do with pending free trade agreements or reauthorization of existing programs, rather than new major trade initiatives, according to their report. A final report will be released at the end this Congress.
Tim Warren
Timothy Warren is Executive Managing Editor of Communications Daily. He previously led the International Trade Today editorial team from the time it was purchased by Warren Communications News in 2012 through the launch of Export Compliance Daily and Trade Law Daily. Tim is a 2005 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids.
CBP officials addressed a number of myths surrounding the agency's rewrite of broker regulations in 19 CFR Part 111. Elena Ryan, director for trade facilitation and administration at CBP said the agency heard brokers report several pieces of misinformation regarding the regulatory update. Ryan and others spoke during an Oct. 4 Webinar that provided a rundown of the agency's outreach efforts to the broker industry. The Webinar is part of agencies outreach effort to explore the "Role of the Broker."
New lobbyist registrations on trade issues include:
CBP said Tropical Shipping USA is now authorized as a Centralized Examination Station in West Palm Beach, Fla. Email documents@brokerpower.com for a copy of the information bulletin.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) is increasingly used as the legal forum for patent fights, allowing for the potential skirting of anti-competitive rules set through legal precedent, said Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill. Brill spoke at an event Oct. 3 at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Brill said the ITC needs to ensure that remedies related to standard-essential patents licensed on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms do not conflict with the public interest. Use of the ITC as a venue for patent challenges has tripled in the last 10 years, said Brill, because the ITC is not required to follow the precedent set by the Supreme Court's decision in eBay vs. MercExchange. The 2006 case barred automatic injunctions for patent infringement. Brill said companies' use of the ITC as a venue for patent challenges "threatens to undermine the pro-competitive aspects of eBay vs. MercExchange, and has the potential to turn the ITC into a forum for patent holdup."
Jason Kearns, a trade lawyer for the House Ways and Means Committee, is replacing Viji Rangaswami as Minority Chief Trade Counsel on the committee, said a spokesman for Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-Mich.) Kearns has worked on the committee since 2006, before which he worked in the Office of the General Counsel to the U.S. Trade Representative. The spokesman said Rangaswami hasn't said where she is going next.
CBP at the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport approved revisions to the California Cartage Company Trade Enforcement Centralized Examination Stations (CES) fee schedule, it said in a public bulletin. CBP Los Angeles said no comments were received in response to the proposed change after it was released in May. Email documents@brokerpower.com for a copy of this bulletin.
CBP plans roundtables Oct. 23 on the Air Cargo Advance Screening (ACAS) pilot and the agency's trade transformation efforts, said CBP in an email. CBP officials that will attend the roundtable include Chief Operating Officer Thomas Winkowski, Director of Field Operations (NY) Robert Perez and Senior Advisor for Private Sector Engagement Maria Luisa O’Connell. The ACAS portion will be 10-11 a.m. and the trade transformation portion will be 1-2 p.m, both at One Penn Plaza, Suite 1100, New York, NY 10119., said CBP.
CBP posted an Oct. 1 version of its CF 1400 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Entrances) electronic query report of the Vessel Management System (VMS), in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by entrances. CBP also posted a version of its CF 1401 (Record of Vessel in Foreign Trade Clearances) electronic query report of the VMS, in accordance with 19 CFR 4.95, organized by clearances.
CBP is expanding its Importer Self-Assessment (ISA) program to allow importers that have gone through other stringent government reviews to take advantage of the program, according to an Oct. 5 Federal Register notice. The agency will now allow companies that have gone through a CBP Focused Assessment (FA) audit to take part in ISA without additional reviews. The change formalizes an informal and not widely known practice that CBP has had over the last couple of years, said an industry executive.