On June 17, 2004, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4520, the American Jobs Creation Act, which would, among other things, repeal the Foreign Sales Corporation/Extraterritorial Income Act (FSC/ETI) tax regime, extend the Merchandise Processing Fee (MPF) and other user fees, etc.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a June 2004 version of its Compliance Policy Guide (Guide) on the FDA and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP's) strategy for enforcing the requirements of the interim final rule for submitting prior notice (PN) for imported food.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a notice stating that, at the request of the Government of Mexico, a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel (DSP) has been established to review the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration's (ITA's) calculation of countervailing (CV) duties in the final results of the 1998 administrative review of certain cut-to-length carbon steel plate from Mexico.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site its "critical list" of textiles and apparel subject to import quotas with entered quantities 85% or more filled as of June 29, 2004. CBP states that this "critical list" may be used by CBP as a reference for releasing quota merchandise "off line" when the Automated Commercial System (ACS) is down for longer than four hours. CBP notes that textile and apparel merchandise for Electronic Visa Information System (ELVIS) countries cannot be released "off line" until it is processed through quota. CBP further notes that if the system is down for more than 24 hours, Headquarters Quota Branch should be contacted for further instructions. CBP also states that merchandise subject to tariff-rate quotas (TRQs), which are filled, may be released if entered under the "over quota" (high) rate of duty. (CBP's critical list, dated 06/29/04, http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/textile_critical_list/)

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of bulk aspirin from China for the period of July 1, 2002 through June 30, 2003. In addition, the ITA is revoking the AD duty order with respect to one company.

According to a Textile Development Memo issued by the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel (USA-ITA), on June 28, 2004, the domestic industry announced that it has filed a "petition" with the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) seeking a textile safeguard on socks made in China. (TDM dated 06/28/04, www.usaita.com.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a press release announcing that the Hellenic Republic (Greece) has joined the Container Security Initiative (CSI) and the U.S. and Greece signed a CSI declaration of principles on June 24, 2004.