According to the State Department, effective January 15, 2004, its Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), through the use of the D-Trade electronic licensing system, is prepared to receive and adjudicate fully electronic defense export authorization requests properly submitted by any U.S. person who is a defense trade registrant and wishes to permanently export unclassified defense articles via the Form DSP-5 or furnish defense services via Technical Assistance Agreements (TAAs).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a press release stating that Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 was a record-breaking year for the volume of trade entering through U.S. seaports and borders. According to CBP, it collected nearly $1 billion more in revenue for the federal government in FY 2003 than in FY 2002.

According to The Journal of Commerce, the submission to the Coast Guard of vessel and facility security plans by December 31, 2003 was only the first step as the crucial deadline is July 1, 2004, when vessels and shoreside facilities must have their security plans in operation. The article states that the Coast Guard plans to review the port security plans during the January-March 2003 time frame and by July 1, 2004, port facilities have to be operating in compliance. After that time, the Coast Guard will make unscheduled facility visits to make sure the plans are in operation. (JoC dated 01/12-18/04, www.joc.com.)

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 November 30, 2003 by country and category (including merged and part category).

The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued a Federal Register notice stating that pursuant to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the existing export visa and folklore certification requirements are being canceled for textile and apparel products in Categories 410, 433, 443, and 611 as such products are no longer subject to 'regular' quotas for exports from Mexico on and after January 1, 2004. (See ITT's Online Archives or 01/14/04 news, 04011415, for earlier BP summary.) (FR Pub 01/23/04, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-1560.pdf)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice stating that, effective January 23, 2004, the U.S. is rescinding the visa and ELVIS requirement for Chinese origin products in Categories 222, 349/649 and 350/650 which remain subject to safeguard quotas. (See ITT's Online Archives or 01/22/04 news, 04012210, for BP summary of the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements' (CITA's) announcement of this rescission.) (QBT-04-001, dated 01/23/04, available at http://www.cbp.gov/ImageCache/cgov/content/import/textiles/qbt/qbt2004/2004_5f001_2edoc/v1/2004_5f001.doc)

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated administrative reviews of the following antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders for the specific companies listed in the ITA notice (unless otherwise noted):

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its changed circumstances review of the countervailing (CV) duty order on carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod from Canada. As a result, the ITA is revoking this CV duty order for entries of subject merchandise with a time of entry on or after February 8, 2002.

Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. The following has been issued since BP's most recent update:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP's) Office of Information and Technology has posted a notice to its Web site containing (a) a list, updated as of January 14, 2004, of companies/persons offering Sea Automated Manifest System (AMS) data processing services to the trade community, and (b) the Sea AMS Respondent Checklist, as follows: