In the Feb. 27 issue of the CBP Bulletin (Vol. 47, No. 10), CBP published a notice on its revocation of a ruling on the country of origin marking of toy blocks.
CBP will begin operations in three new Centers of Excellence and Expertise in April, said Deputy Commissioner David Aguilar at the March 6 Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting. The three CEEs opening in April are: Base Metals (Chicago), Industrial & Manufacturing Materials (Buffalo, N.Y.) and Machinery (Laredo, Texas). The remaining three, Consumer Products & Mass Merchandising (Atlanta), Apparel, Footwear & Textiles (San Francisco), and Agriculture & Prepared Products (Miami), are scheduled to open in June.
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SNR Denton added international trade lawyer Mark Lunn, previously with Arent Fox, as a partner in the Washington office.
The Federal Maritime Commission said the following have filed applications for a license as a Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVO) and/or Ocean Freight Forwarder (OFF)-Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI) pursuant to section 19 of the Shipping Act of 1984. The FMC also gave notice of the filing of applications to amend an existing OTI license or the qualifying individual for a license. Interested persons may contact the Office of Transportation Intermediaries, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, D.C. 20573, at 202-523-5843 or at OTI@fmc.gov.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union filed an Unfair Labor Practice Charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Mitsui-United, the ILWU, Local 4 said in a statement. The charge is a result of the company's lockout of its workforce at the Port of Vancouver USA. The ILWU alleges Mitsui-United Grain “took the extreme measure of locking out its entire bargaining unit even though by its own statements it had identified and terminated the employee allegedly responsible for the property damage." The ILWU said the property damage took place December 22, five days before the unilateral implementation of Mitsui-United Grain's final offer. Mitsui's U.S. office didn't comment.
The Federal Aviation Administration projected revenue ton miles (RTMs) to grow 5.7 percent. The forecasts for international cargo RTMs are based on growth in world GDP, adjusted for inflation, the report said. While International cargo RTMs unexpectedly fell 3.6 percent in 2012 "as fallout from the European debt crisis and a slowdown in China’s economic growth slowed worldwide trade," they are projected to grow 1.1 percent in 2013 as global trade growth resumes, said the FAA. International cargo RTMs are forecast to increase an average of 5.7 percent a year from 2013-2033, the agency said. The share of international cargo RTMs flown by all-cargo carriers increased from 49.3 percent in 2000 to 74.7 percent in 2012, the report said. Continuing the trend, the all-cargo share of international RTMs flown is expected to increase to 81 percent by 2033, said the FAA.
CBP officers and import specialists assigned to the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport seized 1,500 handbags with fake counterfeit “Hermès” trademarks. Had the goods been real, the seized handbags would have an estimated manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $14,100,000. The merchandise, which arrived from China in two shipments, was seized by CBP officers on Feb. 12 and 26.
CBP said its Port of Baltimore office is closed March 6 due to a snow storm.
The CBP Commercial Operations Advisory Committee (COAC) meeting scheduled for March 6 will go on as planned, despite a Washington-area storm that shut down the rest of the Federal Government . The meeting is the first of the 13th term of the COAC.