The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site its weekly quota commodity report as of January 26, 2004. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cocoa powder, 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 01/26/04, available at http://www.customs.ustreas.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a notice stating that the President's Export Council Subcommittee on Export Administration (PECSEA) will hold a partially open meeting on February 25, 2004 in Washington, DC. According to BIS, PECSEA provides advice on matters regarding portions of the Export Administration Act, as amended, that deal with U.S. policies of encouraging and controlling certain trade. (FR Pub 02/03/04, available at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-2112.pdf)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has posted to its Web site the draft text of the U.S.-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which is dated January 28, 2004.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has issued its 2003 Management Discussion and Analysis report covering fiscal year (FY) 2003 audited financial statements. The FMC states that this is the first-ever FMC report of this nature.
The State Department has issued a notice announcing that on February 4, 2003, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia changed its name to "Serbia and Montenegro."
(a) The ITA states that La Pointe & Roy, as both producer and exporter, has a de minimis CV rate of 0.08%. As a result, suspension of liquidation continues, but at a CV cash deposit rate of zero.
The General Accounting Office (GAO) has issued a report entitled, International Trade: U.S. Customs and Border Protection Faces Challenges in Addressing Illegal Textile Transshipment in response to requests from the Chairmen and Ranking Minority Members of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.
On January 23, 2004, President Bush signed into law (Public Law (P.L.) 108-199) the conference version of the fiscal year (FY) 2004 omnibus appropriations bill (H.R. 2673), entitled the "Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2004." P.L. 108-199 includes eight separate appropriations measures, including the 2004 Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (Act), which provides, among other things, FY 2004 appropriations for the Commerce Department.
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued two notices requesting public comments by February 17, 2004 regarding "commercial availability" requests it received, variously, under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA), and the U.S.-Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) from Levi Strauss and Co.: