U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site its weekly quota commodity report as of January 6, 2004. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cocoa, tobacco, certain Jordan Free Trade Agreement (JFTA), Chile Free Trade Agreement (UCFTA), and Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA) TRQs, etc. This report also includes TRQs on certain HTS Chapter 52 cotton, upland cotton under HTS Chapter 99, the UCFTA, SFTA, CBTPA, AGOA, ATPDEA, and NAFTA tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics under HTS 9902.51.11 & 9902.51.12, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 01/06/04, available at http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the changed circumstances antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty reviews of certain pasta from Turkey, concluding that Tat Konserve Sanayi A.S. (Tat) is the successor-in-interest to Pastavilla Makarnacilik Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Pastavilla) for AD and CV duty cash deposit purposes.
(a) Sanjian has an AD duty rate of zero; no cash deposits will be required although suspension of liquidation will continue.
On January 9, 2004 the State Department issued a Worldwide Caution to remind U.S. citizens of the continuing threat that they may be targets of terrorist attacks despite the lowering of the homeland security threat level to Yellow (Elevated) from Orange (High).
On October 18, 2003 the Bureau of Census (Census) implemented a final rule to, among other things, amend 15 CFR 30.7 to require the Employer Identification Number (EIN) or Social Security Number (SSN) of the duly authorized forwarding or other agent (if any) of a principal party in interest to be on the paper Shipper's Export Declaration (SED, Form 7525-V).
On January 7, 2004, the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Maritime Administration (MARAD) issued a press release announcing that the Cargo Handling Cooperative Program (CHCP), a partnership between MARAD and private industry, has released the results of testing it performed on five electronic security seals (e-seals) proposed for use on intermodal freight containers.
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In December 2003, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would soon issue several additional measures intended to further strengthen protections against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued additional instructions on the Special Bill programming (new non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) and Master vessel operating common carrier (VOCC) bill types) for Sea Automated Manifest System (AMS) which was moved into the production environment (i.e., implemented) during the normally scheduled system outage of 11:00 p.m. EST Saturday, January 10, 2004 to 3:00 a.m. Sunday, January 11, 2004.