U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice announcing that the next meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) will be held on April 2, 2004 in Washington, DC. (This committee was previously called the "Treasury Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. Customs Service.")

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice stating that it has been informed that the criteria for HTS 9808.00.3000 emergency war material was inadvertently allowed to lapse for the period of December 1, 2003 - January 13, 2004.

AD duty new shipper review. A bond or other security may continue to be posted in lieu of an AD cash deposit, until the final results are in effect.

The World Customs Organization (WCO) has issued an amending supplement (No. 4 dated August 2003) to the Harmonized System Explanatory Notes (ENs). (Although not binding on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the ENs are followed by CBP whenever possible.)

The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued messages on a number of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty actions, many of which (marked by an * in the action column) were previously published in the Federal Register by the International Trade Administration (ITA) and summarized in International Trade Today.

Value allowance regarding warranty expenses, port repair expenses. In Saab Cars USA, Inc. v. U.S., the Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled that, with respect to imported automobiles, most of Saab's claims for an allowance in value for warranty expenses were not adequately supported. However, the CIT did conclude that Saab should be granted an allowance in value for its port repair expenses.

The Washington Trade Daily (WTD) reports that the chief U.S. negotiator in the Canada softwood lumber countervailing (CV) dispute believes that a negotiated solution remains a long-shot. According to the WTD, in the absence of a negotiated settlement, the Bush Administration will have to weigh options such as further litigation. (WTD Pub 03/18/04, www.washingtontradedaily.com)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is announcing that effective April 1, 2004 there will be changes to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers at the statistical suffix level (the 9^th and 10^th digits) for certain men's and boys' cotton T-shirts and certain other garments classified in HTS 6109.10.00.

On March 4, 2004, the Senate passed its version of H.R. 1047, the "Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003."