In the April 21, 2004 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 38, No. 17), CBP issued a notice proposing to modify a ruling regarding the country of origin marking for Italian-origin jewelry chains and clasps assembled in the U.S. CBP states that it is also proposing to modify any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions that are contrary to its position in this notice.

The Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) has issued a notice stating that it is seeking nominations for 15 qualified persons to serve on the Advisory Committee on Emerging Markets. According to FAS, this committee will provide information and advice, based upon knowledge and expertise of the members, useful to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in implementing the Emerging Markets Program (EMP). Written nominations must be received by FAS by 5 p.m. on May 26, 2004. (FR Pub 04/26/04, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-9420.pdf)

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) administers FirstGov.gov (http://firstgov.gov), which is the official U.S. gateway to all government information.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced the creation of its new Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) Status Verification Interface (SVI).

The ITA states that it is rescinding Tancheng from the AD duty new shipper review because Tancheng withdrew its request for review and no other party objected to its withdrawal of that request.

The ITA states that it will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess AD duties, in line with the 2.57% corrected AD rate, on all appropriate entries.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of April 26, 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 04/26/04, available at http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and quota/commodity/)

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has posted to its Web site the reports of 32 Trade Advisory Committees on the proposed U.S.-Dominican Republic agreement which integrates the Dominican Republic into the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS') Science and Technology Directorate has announced that Analytic Services Incorporated (ANSER) has been selected to operate the Homeland Security Institute, which is DHS' first Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). According to DHS, the FFRDC will particularly focus on those matters involving policy and security where scientific, technical, and analytical expertise is required such as those in the extremely complex threat and vulnerability assessment areas. (DHS press release, dated 04/23/04, available at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=3509)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message stating that the third 2003/2004 specialty sugar tariff-rate quota (TRQ) provided for in HTS Chapter 17, Additional U.S. Note (AUSN) 5 which opened on Monday, April 19, 2004, over-subscribed at opening moment. According to CBP, the pro rata percentage is 24.96% (.2496).