U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum describing procedures for the implementation of enforced compliance and penalties for the prior notice of imported food (PN) requirements contained in the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (Bioterrorism Act). In addition, an attachment to the memorandum provides guidelines for the assessment of penalties for Bioterrorism Act violations involving PN, and the mitigation of such penalties.
On April 8, 2004, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation amended and approved the Rail Security Act of 2004 (S. 2273). On May 21, 2004, the Committee reported S. 2273 (Senate Report 108-278) and the bill was placed on the Senate legislative calendar.
The Journal of Commerce reports that the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) will take longer to complete than planned because, among other things, the need for anti-terrorism features in the system has apparently set back its development. The article notes that while U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) originally hoped to have ACE constructed over five years, with completion in 2007 or 2008, officials now state that with the added technology and the need for additional funding, ACE is likely to be on an eight- to ten-year schedule, which would have it completed by 2010 at the earliest. (JoC dated 06/21-27/04, www.joc.com.)
| Eff 06/18/04 FR Pub 06/18/04 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) is reviewing various measures relating to the antidumping (AD) duty order on oil country tubular goods (OCTG) from Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of June 21, 2004. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics under HTS 9902.51.11 & 9902.51.12, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report dated 06/21/04, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/) On June 17, 2004, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4520, the American Jobs Creation Act, by a vote of 251 to 178. H.R. 4520 would, among other things, repeal the Foreign Sales Corporation/Extraterritorial Income Act (FSC/ETI) tax regime (which has been found by the World Trade Organization to be illegal), reduce the top corporate tax rate for domestic manufacturers and small corporations, make certain Customs-related changes, etc. (The Senate passed its own version of this legislation, the Jumpstart Our Business Strength (JOBS) Act (S. 1637), on May 11, 2004. See ITT's Online Archives or 05/13/04 news, 04051399 1, for previous BP summary.)(House Ways and Means Committee press release, dated 06/17/04) available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/news.asp?formmode=release&id=228.) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has updated its Web site to announce that the ports of San Francisco, CA, Otay Mesa, CA, Calexico, CA, and Tecate, CA are now participating in its Pilot Bond Centralization Program for Type 1 Importer continuous transaction bonds. On June 17, 2004, the House Ways and Means Committee's Trade Subcommittee held a hearing on the budget authorization for fiscal year (FY) 2005 and FY 2006 for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as on other Customs issues. At this hearing, the subcommittee was addressed by two witnesses and six panelists. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has recently posted to its Web site a summary of the changes to the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR). The following is a summary of the June 2004 changes to the AESTIR contained in this summary: |