CBP Administrative Messages, Web Postings, Etc

1. CBP Updates its Summary of Changes to the June 2004 AESTIR

• January 7, 2005 - Appendix V (HTS Numbers that Cannot be Reported in AES) was updated for 2005;
• January 10, 2005 - the length and class of the AES Commodity Data Transaction Proprietary Formats Input DDTC Detail (ODT Record) DDTC Registration Number was changed; and
• January 10, 2005 - Appendix K (Unit of Measure Codes) was amended by adding "PR" as an acceptable abbreviation for pairs.

(Summary of changes to the June 2004 version of the AESTIR available at

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/export/aes/tech_docs/aestir/june04_intro/.)

2. Weekly Quota Commodity Report as of January 18, 2005

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of January 18, 2005. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc.

(CBP sources state that this report does not yet include the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (UAFTA) because UAFTA claims are currently being made non-ABI. Sources state that once programming is complete and UAFTA claims can be made via ABI, the UAFTA will be added to the weekly quota commodity report.) (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 01/18/05, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)

3. Miscellaneous CBP Messages on AD and CV Duty Actions

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued messages on a number of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty actions, many of which (marked by an * in the action column) were previously published in the Federal Register by the International Trade Administration (ITA) and summarized in International Trade Today.

(The CBP messages marked with an * cover much of the same information as the ITA notices; however, CBP's messages often list the 10-character case number specific to each listed company(s). ITA notices only list the 7-character master case number. In addition, sometimes the master case number for CBP purposes (in parentheses, below, where applicable) differs from the ITA master case number.)

4. VOCCs that Have Become Sea AMS Operational

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that the following vessel operating common carriers (VOCCs) have become Sea AMS operational: