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)

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 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 issued a notice announcing the opportunity to request administrative reviews of the following antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders or suspended investigations:

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has issued two notices announcing that it has received two new, similar petitions as described below. According the FMC, interested persons are requested to submit comments on these petitions on or before February 13, 2004.

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."

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 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that the European Union (EU) is poised to impose trade sanctions on billions of dollars of U.S. goods starting in March 2004, as congressional leaders signaled their inability to reach agreement on repeal of the U.S. Foreign Sales Corp./Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act (FSC/ETI) tax regime. The World Trade Organization (WTO) has ruled this tax deduction illegal and given the EU permission to impose as much as $4 billion in sanctions a year. According to an EU official, if the law isn't repealed, the EU is certain to retaliate starting March 1, 2004. (WSJ Pub, 01/26/04, www.wallstreetjournal.com)

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.:

In U.S. v. Inn Foods, Inc., the Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled that litigation filed by the U.S. on December 14, 2001 to collect Customs duties and fees from Inn Foods for violations of 19 USC 1592 regarding produce imported from Mexico was untimely by one day.