On July 14, 2004, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4759, implementing legislation for the U.S.-Australia free trade agreement (FTA). The Senate then passed H.R. 4759 on July 15, 2004. (Information on H.R. 4759 is available at http://thomas.loc.gov.)
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.)
The Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) held a quarterly meeting on June 18, 2004 in Washington, DC to discuss and receive updates from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials on various trade and customs issues.
(a) final AD cash deposit rate of zero; however, suspension of liquidation will continue
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have issued a press release announcing three actions being taken to further strengthen existing safeguards that protect consumers against the agent that causes Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a set of four frequently asked questions (FAQ) and responses (dated July 8, 2004) on the "Rail" portion of its final rule on the advance electronic presentation of information pertaining to cargo (ocean, air, rail, and truck) prior to its being brought into, or sent from, the U.S.
new shipper review; bonding will no longer be permitted to fulfill AD security requirements.
The Commerce Department's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has issued its Major Shippers Textiles and Apparel Report, which contains selected general import statistics by date of import from the Census Bureau through May 31, 2004 by country and category (including merged and part category).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice announcing its determination that Nigeria (1) has adopted an effective visa system and related procedures to prevent unlawful transshipment and the use of counterfeit documents in connection with shipments of textile and apparel articles, and (2) has implemented and follows, or is making substantial progress toward implementing and following, the customs procedures required by the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). This determination is effective July 14, 2004.
Shippers'NewsWire reports that Islamist terrorist organizations have allegedly warned several major Asian shipping companies of possible attacks, according to newspapers in Asia. However, one Korean shipping company commented that Korean newspapers "erroneously reported" that the terrorist organizations had warned nine Korean shipping companies, when in fact the warning messages were addressing major shipping companies worldwide that include American, Danish, Taiwanese and French ones. (American Shipper Shippers'NewsWire, 07/14/04, ShippersNewsWire@americanshipper.com )