The following are the trade-related hearings scheduled from May 7-11, 2012:
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.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is requesting comments by June 6, 2012, a 30-day comment cycle extension, on an existing information collection on the Declaration of Person Who Performed Repairs or Alterations requirement required for goods returned after repair and under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) 9802.00.40 and 9802.00.50. CBP proposes to extend the expiration date of this information collection with no change to the burden hours or to the information collected. The comments extensions ran in the Federal Register May 7, 2012.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection released its May 2 Customs Bulletin. While the Bulletin does not contain any ruling articles, it does list recent information collection notices and recent Court of International Trade decisions.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection offered some clarifications on the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) International Organization for Standardization (ISO) seal standard for truckers, in a set of Frequently Asked Questions. The FAQs describe the continued use for seal standard ISO/PAS 17712. A new seal standard for containers was previously planned to be implemented by March 1, 2012, but CBP said in February an indeterminate delay was necessary for testing.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Los Angeles port sent out a public bulletin on proposed revisions to the California Cartage Company Trade Enforcement Centralized Examination Stations (CES) fee schedule. The revisions, if approved by the Port Director, will be effective after a 30 calendar day public comment period, the bulletin said. The California Cartage Company seeks to include a traffic mitigation fee increase and a modification to "equipment control" policy, the bulletin said.
A group of U.S. Senators asked President Barack Obama to rethink the current approach to apparel tariffs in the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a May 1, 2012 letter to the President. The letter asked that U.S. negotiators promote flexible rules of origin and meaningful market access to maximize the incentive to increase U.S. exports and jobs.
This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s April 30, 2012, “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly April 30, 2012 “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”1
U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued the following releases on commercial trade and related issues:
The next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will be on May 22, 2012 at 1 p.m. (EST) in Savannah, Ga. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is seeking comment on the planned agenda items, according to a notice in the Federal Register May 4, 2012. Online registration for webcast and in-person attendance at the COAC meeting is open through May 18, 2012.
Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) pushed for more use of new technology to help facilitate trade processing at the ports, during a Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management field hearing in Laredo, Texas, May 1. New forms of technology would allow CBP to more efficiently use its manpower, he said at the hearing, which focused on using technology at the ports.