U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice on the CAFTA-DR tariff rate quota (TRQ) that has been implemented for the March 24, 2006 - December 31, 2006 period for certain sugar and sugar containing products from El Salvador.
Customs Duty
A Customs Duty is a tariff or tax which a country imposes on goods when they are transported across international borders. Customs Duties are used to protect countries' economies, residents, jobs, and environments, by limiting the flow of imported merchandise, especially restricted and prohibited goods, into the country. The Customs Duty Rate is a percentage determined by the value of the article purchased in the foreign country and not based on quality, size, or weight.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice announcing the opportunity to request administrative reviews by April 30, 2006 for individual producers or exporters subject to the following antidumping (AD) and/or countervailing (CV) duty orders:
Effective May 1, 2005, the International Trade Administration (ITA) is revoking the antidumping (AD) duty orders on brass sheet and strip from Brazil and Canada, and the countervailing (CV) duty order on brass sheet and strip from Brazil.
On March 15, 2006, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4944, the "Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2006" (Act) by a vote of 412 - 2.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the third staged entry period for overhsipments of certain textiles and apparel subject to 2005 China safeguard quotas will open1 on April 3, 2006 at 1:00 p.m. EDT or its equivalent in other time zones.
CBP has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that its most recent Harmonized System (HS) update (No. 0601) contains:
Effective June 19, 2005, August 18, 2005, and August 14, 2005, the International Trade Administration (ITA) is revoking the antidumping (AD) duty order on structural steel beams (beams) from Japan, and revoking the AD duty order and the countervailing (CV) duty order on structural steel beams from Korea, respectively.
The Washington Post reports that officials told a Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee subcommittee that in December 2005 undercover teams from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), testing U.S. port security, smuggled enough radioactive material into the U.S. to make two "dirty" bombs. According to the article, the material triggered radiation alarms, but the undercover investigators used false documents to persuade U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors to let them through. The article also states that GAO told the subcommittee that it was "unlikely" that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be able to complete its goal of installing 3,034 new-generation radiation detectors at border crossings, ports and mail facilities by September 2009. (WP dated 03/28/06, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032800774.html.)
Effective March 14, 2006, the International Trade Administration (ITA) is revoking the antidumping (AD) duty orders on grain-oriented electrical steel from Italy and Japan and the countervailing (CV) duty order on grain-oriented electrical steel from Italy because the ITA found that the domestic interested parties did not participate in the sunset reviews on these three orders.