Pablo Benes, legal officer in the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization, joined Steptoe & Johnson as a director in the firm's International Trade and International Regulatory Compliance Practice groups in Washington.
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 posted an updated version of its spreadsheet of ACE ESAR A2.2 (Initial Entry Types) programming issues.
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved April 19, 2012, a 2013 appropriations draft bill to fund the new Interagency Trade Enforcement Center (ITEC). The bill would give $24.2 million to the Commerce Department and $1.8 million to the USTR for the creation of ITEC, equaling the administration's full requested amount of $26 million. The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and related agencies proposed the bill earlier this week.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said April 20, 2012, that some ACE Reports do not contain the most up to date data. The affected reports include: all Entry Summary reports, all Declaration reports (under the Account Management folder), and AD-8027 (Trade Aged Liquidation ADCVD Entry Summary Report). The data load is continuing to run and CBP anticipates reports to be up to date by April 21, 2012 at 0800 EDT (8am). A subsequent message will be distributed when the data load is complete.
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist gave his support for the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) process. The MTB is essential to providing relief to America’s beleaguered producers and consumers, said Norquist in a letter to Congress. By reducing or eliminating duties on imports, the MTB lowers input costs for domestic manufactures, which increases the competitiveness of American goods and puts additional savings in the pockets of consumers, the letter said.
The Commerce Department will expand the SelectUSA program in an effort to increase support of advanced manufacturing and aid exporters, said Commerce Secretary John Bryson during a April 19, 2012, House Subcommittee on Commerce Manufacturing and Trade hearing on American Manufacturing. SelectUSA, which was created through executive order last year, coordinates existing resources and functions across all Federal agencies that have operations relevant to business investment decisions, said Bryson. As a central point of contact within the U.S. government, SelectUSA serves as an advocate and ombudsman for the investor community, he said.
On April 18, 2012, the following trade-related bills and resolutions were introduced:
The following are trade-related highlights of the Executive Communications sent to Congress for April 18, 2012:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection will update its list of airports approved to accept aircraft traveling to or from Cuba, according to a notice to be published in the Federal Register April 20, 2012. Part 122, subpart O, of the CBP regulations sets forth special procedures that apply to all aircraft (except public aircraft) entering or departing the U.S. to or from Cuba. On January 28, 2011, CBP published a final rule in the Federal Register (76 FR 5058) that amended the CBP regulations to establish such procedures and airport eligibility criteria.
This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s April 16, 2012, “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly April 16, 2012 “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”1