The Federal Maritime Commission is investigating whether Hapag-Lloyd violated Shipping Act regulations by imposing unfair detention fees on containers that couldn’t be returned to a terminal, the FMC said in a notice released Nov. 16. The commission said Hapag-Lloyd, A.G. and Hapag-Lloyd (America) LLC may have imposed unreasonable or unjust charges on containers “when return locations with corresponding appointments were unavailable,” the FMC said. The investigation order was formally served Nov. 10. Hapag-Lloyd didn’t comment.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach postponed until next week consideration of a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers, the two California ports announced Nov. 15. The ports originally said they would begin imposing the fee Nov. 15 (see 2111030027) but pushed the start date to Nov. 22 because of the “significant improvement in clearing import containers from our docks in recent weeks,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said.
Terminal operators at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports in California soon will impose a “traffic mitigation fee” to incentivize the movement of containers during off-peak hours. The fee -- announced Nov. 10 by the West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement, a group of 12 container terminals in the L.A.-Long Beach region -- will be imposed Dec. 1 to Jan. 31, 2022, from 7 a.m. to 5:59 p.m. Monday through Friday. The terminals will charge $78.23 per 20-foot equivalent unit or $156.46 for “all other sizes of container for non-exempt international container moves through the terminals.” The fee is “subject to regulatory clearance” by the Federal Maritime Commission, the WCMTOA said.
President Joe Biden extended a national emergency that authorizes a ban on U.S. investments in Chinese military companies, the White House said Nov. 9. The ban was first issued during the Trump administration and later expanded by Biden in June by widening the scope of the restrictions to cover companies operating in China’s surveillance technology sector (see 2106030067). The White House said China continues to use civil-military fusion strategies to increase its military-industrial complex, which supports Chinese intelligence activities and threatens U.S. national security. The national emergency was extended to Nov. 12, 2022.
The Bureau of Industry and Security extended the comment period for an information collection involving the Chemical Weapons Convention provisions in the Export Administration Regulations (see 2107200010), the agency said in a notice. The information collection describes U.S. reporting obligations and information on certain end-use certificates. BIS said it will allow an additional 30 days of public comments. Comments are due by Dec. 13.
The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America this month updated its U.S. Principal Party in Interest Responsibility Information Sheet. Forwarders can hand out the sheet to help their export customers better understand their exporting responsibilities, including commodity jurisdiction issues, due diligence requirements and export filing mandates. The updated form includes a new question at the end of the USPPI checklist related to copies of data transmissions from export filings.
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls published the presentation slides from its Nov. 4 Defense Trade Advisory Group meeting. They include materials from two DTAG working groups, one on best practices for conducting internal audits, and the other on recommendations to ease post-authorization record-keeping and reporting requirement burdens (see 2111050037 and 2111050046).
The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has experienced email “disruptions” with its customer service inbox and may not have received messages sent in July, August, September and October, DDTC said in a recent notice. Emailers should resend their messages to DDTCCustomerService@state.gov if they haven’t received a response with a case number.
The State Department approved a potential $650 million military sale to Saudi Arabia, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Nov. 4. The sale is for “AIM-120C Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles” and related equipment. The principal contractor will be Raytheon.
Non-vessel-operating common carriers should soon begin seeing the effects of the recently announced surcharges at two California ports (see 2111030027), the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America said in a Nov. 4 email to members. But the group also said non-vessel-operating common carriers have options to mitigate the charges.