The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is seeking comments by Jan. 30 that identify policies or practices that would put a country on the intellectual property watch list, it said in a Federal Register notice. It is not planning a public hearing, so commenters will be asked to respond to written questions from administration officials.
The Federal Maritime Commission’s proposed demurrage and detention billing requirements (see 2210070079) may lead to “unintended consequences” by only allowing “contracted parties to be charged with demurrage and detention fees,” the National Association of Chemical Distributors said Dec. 13 in comments to the FMC. NACD is “concerned that this requirement would in some cases force parties that are not responsible for the conduct that caused the incurrence of the demurrage and detention fees to be charged and liable for detention and demurrage fees,” NACD Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Gibson said. “This would cause additional delays, add more time for demurrage fees to accrue unnecessarily, and increase the potential for disputes.”
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. recently cleared a U.S.-Singapore acquisition in the real estate industry, Squire Patton said in a Dec. 12 alert. CFIUS cleared the $14 billion acquisition of U.S.-based STORE Capital by Singapore-based GIC Private Limited and U.S.-based Blue Owl Capital. STORE Capital is an “internally managed net-lease real estate investment trust,” and GIC and Blue Owl are investors.
CBP should develop a “verification process” for self-propelled vehicle exports, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s Export Modernization Working Group said during a Dec. 7 COAC meeting. CBP should also explore using its Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism for exports, the group said.
A Chinese freight forwarder asked the Federal Maritime Commission to dismiss an October complaint from a U.S. distributor accusing the forwarder of illegally trying to change the terms of a signed service contract and purposefully delaying 20 container shipments in order to submit higher detention and demurrage invoices (see 2210250021).
The State Department approved four potential military sales -- two to Taiwan, one to Poland and one to South Korea -- worth more than $5.6 billion combined, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Dec. 6.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls sent a final rule for interagency review related to certain license exemptions for allies. The rule, received by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Dec. 2, would amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations’ Supplement No. 1 to Part 126 “in support of allies.” DDTC in July announced an open general license pilot to authorize reexports and retransfers of certain defense items and services to Australia, Canada and the U.K. (see 2207190008).
The State Department approved a $380 million military sale to Finland, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Dec. 1. The sale includes “FIM-92K Stinger Man Portable missiles; Production Verification Flight Test (PVFT) FIM-92K Stinger Man Portable missiles” and related equipment. The principal contractors will be Raytheon Missiles and Defense and Lockheed Martin. A $323.3 million military sale including missiles to Finland was approved Nov. 28 (see 2211290007).
The Federal Maritime Commission this week announced new interim procedures for shippers, forwarders and others filing charge complaints for alleged violations of U.S. shipping regulations. The new procedures will help the FMC “take prompt action” to adjudicate complaints and guide the commission as it works to create a permanent filing process, which will be established through a future rulemaking.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls updated its “redline” document to help industry better view changes made to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations as a result of the agency’s ITAR reorganization effort. The revised document reflects changes made to the ITAR as a result of DDTC’s continued temporary suspension of restrictions on certain defense exports to Cyprus (see 2211210028) and “limits redlines to only those changes made by the March 23 reorganization rule” (see 2203220013).