On March 22, 2004, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta addressed the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) meeting in Arlington, VA. Highlights from Mineta's remarks include (partial list):
The Journal of Commerce Online (JoC Online) reports that the World Customs Organization (WCO) is urging its member nations to work together in an effort to boost transportation security in the wake of the Madrid commuter train bombings. WCO called for its members to implement without delay anti-terror measures it has developed. WCO also stated that it will speed up the pace of work conducted by its specialized bodies with regard to international transport security, physical security of containers, effective customs controls, etc. (JoC Online Pub 03/18/04, www.joc.com)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message stating that a foreign-based consignee should not be sent in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) interface.
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held its second Secure Trade in APEC Region (STAR) Conference on March 5 & 6, 2004 in Via del Mar, Chile. Among other issues, the conference's agenda covered maritime security and air transportation security.
U.S. government sources state that the International Trade Commission (ITC) is expected to soon post to its Web site Revision 1 of its electronic 2004 Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTS). Sources state that the ITC's goal is to have Revision 1 posted by mid-April 2004.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (Offset Act) annual report of disbursements for fiscal year (FY) 2003.
On March 4, 2004, the Senate passed its version of H.R. 1047, the "Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003."
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued two notices announcing that, following receipt of requests from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), it has instituted investigations under 19 USC 3804(f) regarding the potential economy wide and selected sectoral effects of the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) including the Dominican Republic, and the proposed U.S.-Morocco FTA.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) states that an unscheduled outage of 30-45 minutes will occur on March 29, 2004 at 00:01 EST. During the outage, incoming ABI and AMS messages will be queued, and then processed when the ACS system returns to operational status. (Adm: 04-0559, dated 03/22/04, available by fax or email, by emailing documents@brokerpower.com )
On March 18, 2004, in DaimlerChrysler Corporation v. U.S., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) reversed the Court of International Trade's (CIT) denial of 9802.00.80 duty benefits for the top-coat painting of certain trucks assembled in Mexico.