The Foreign Trade Zones Board announced another outreach event to provide training and enable discussion about the new FTZ regulations in New York on July 24, 2012, and provided details on the September 13 outreach event in San Diego. At these events, FTZB will provide general training open to anyone interested in attending, including grantees, and will cover a range of provisions of the new regulations in the first session. A second outreach session for officials of grantee organizations will focus on regulatory provisions that have a direct impact on the grantee role. RSVPs are required by July 20 to attend the New York outreach event, and by September 10 to attend the event in San Diego.
Commerce Secretary Bryson said the Commerce Department will soon announce a call for proposals to support clusters specifically in advanced manufacturing -- through a competition called the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge, in remarks at the “Future of Manufacturing Conference” at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston May 9. These funds are not targeted to create clusters, Bryson said, because that’s not the government’s role. Instead, according to Bryson, Commerce wants to give a boost to existing clusters that have already formed on their own, and which show strong potential to drive innovation and create good jobs.
The U.S. goods and services deficit was $51.8 billion in March 2012, up $5.8 billion from March 2011, according to the U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services Report, released on May 10, 2012 by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The report showed that, as compared to February 2012 levels, exports were up $5.3 billion to $186.8 billion, and imports were up $11.7 billion to $238.6 billion. As compared to March 2011 totals, exports increased by 7.3% and imports by 8.4%. The U.S. trade deficit with China increased to $21.7 billion in March 2012, from $19.4 billion in February. Statement by Commerce Secretary Bryson available here. ITA fact sheet available here.
The Bureau of Industry and Security issued an order denying Davoud Baniameri (aka Davoud Baniamery, David Baniameri, and David Baniamery), currently incarcerated in California, export privileges under the Export Administration Regulations for 10 years from the date of his conviction for IEEPA and AECA violations, i.e. until August 12, 2021. Baniameri was convicted of conspiring to export goods and technology to Iran, in violation of International Emergence Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), and knowingly and willfully attempting to export from the U.S. defense articles designated on the U.S. Munitions List (ten connector adapters) without first having obtained the required license or other approval for such export, in violation of the Arms Export Controls Act (AECA). In addition, BIS decided to revoke all licenses issued pursuant to the Act or Regulations in which Lim had an interest at the time of his conviction.
The Court of International Trade denied Thai plaintiff KYD Inc.’s motion for reconsideration of CIT’s January 2012 affirmance of the International Trade Administration’s second remand redetermination of the 2006-07 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand (A-579-821). KYD said CIT did not address its argument in the January 2012 proceedings that the 94.62% Adverse Facts Available (AFA) rate assigned to KYD by the second remand redetermination and affirmed by CIT violated the excessive fines and forfeitures clause of the 8th Amendment.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the International Trade Administration posted to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Web site as of May 9, 2012, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced that countries in the Asia-Pacific region will meet from May 15 to May 17, 2012, in Malaysia to discuss a draft text of the instrument on mercury, in advance of the "Fourth Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to Prepare a Global Legally Binding Instrument on Mercury" to be held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, starting June 27, 2012.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a final rule, effective June 8, 2012, amending its regulations at 10 CFR Part 110 to expand the exemption from the requirements for a license to include exports of source and byproduct material in IAEA safeguards samples. The NRC said the final rule facilitates implementation of the “Protocol Additional to the Agreement Between the United States of America and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in the United States of America. The amended regulations say source material samples may not exceed 5 kilograms per facility per year, and byproduct material quantities may not exceed the values listed in 10 CFR 30.71.
China’s agreement to participate in negotiations on a deal to limit government financing for exports by 2014 is a potentially positive step, but such an agreement faces certain pitfalls and would likely not reverse the growing international inequities created by China’s aggressive government financing of its exports, said the U.S. China Commission in its staff backgrounder “Export Assistance and the China Challenge.”
The International Trade Commission is publishing notices in the May 9, 2012, Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will appear in another ITT article):