U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has published a final rule which amends the Customs Regulations effective January 5, 2004 regarding the advance electronic presentation of information pertaining to cargo (sea, air, rail, or truck) prior to its being brought into, or sent from, the U.S. (See final rule for compliance dates for each transportation mode.)

The Journal of Commerce (JoC) has reported that the Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether Mexican trucks should be subject to environmental reviews before being allowed to travel on U.S. roads. According to JoC, such trucks have been unable to operate in the U.S. because of a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that environmental reviews must be completed before the trucks are allowed into the U.S. (JoC 12/22/03 - 01/04/04, www.joc.com)

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.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has amended its final results of the antidumping (AD) duty administrative review of tapered roller bearings and parts thereof, finished and unfinished from China for the period of June 1, 1997 through May 31, 1998 as there is now a final and conclusive court decision with respect to Luoyang Bearing Factory (Luoyang) and Premier Bearing and Equipment, Ltd. (Premier).

Public Announcementson Significant Security Risks are a means to disseminate information about terrorist threats or certain other relatively short-term and/or transnational conditions. The following has been issued since BP's most recent update:

Broker Power has listed the 2004 general (column 1) duty rates for certain knit and crocheted apparel that is subject to a cotton or man-made fiber category number.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice advising the trade of the upcoming system requirements for filing a U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SFTA) claim through the Automated Broker Interface (ABI).

(Read Footnotes and Disclaimers at End of Notice)

The Journal of Commerce Online (JoC Online) reports that on January 1, 2004, the Port of Colombo, Sri Lanka was scheduled to begin trials of an automated cargo clearance system aimed at speeding clearance of cargo, which is known as the electronic data interchange (EDI) project. According to the article, a Sri Lankan official stated that transshipment cargo at Colombo port would go paperless April 1, Sri Lanka's import cargo May 1, and exports August 1, 2004. (JoC Online, dated 12/24/03, www.joc.com)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message which clarifies its previously issued 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 production during the normally scheduled system outage on 11:00 p.m. EST Saturday, January 10, 2004 to 3:00 a.m. EST Sunday, January 11, 2004.