U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued messages on a number of antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty actions, many of which (marked by an * in the action column) were previously published in the Federal Register by the International Trade Administration (ITA) and summarized in International Trade Today.

Broker Power provides quota prices on a monthly basis for certain textile and apparel categories from the People's Republic of China (China) that are publicly traded. (These publicly traded quota prices have been provided by a Hong Kong quota broker.)

The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a final rule, effective January 15, 2004, which amends its regulations at 7 CFR 319 on the importation of logs, lumber, and other unmanufactured wood articles into the U.S. to allow wood chips derived from temperate species of Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus) from South America to be treated with a surface pesticide prior to importation as an alternative to the existing treatments.

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.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice on the Uruguay Round price-based "additional duty" (safeguard) provisions of HTS Chapter 99, Subchapter IV for certain agricultural products imported into the U.S. from all countries except Canada, Mexico, Jordan, Singapore, or Chile.

In the January 7, 2004 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 38, No. 2), CBP issued a notice proposing to modify a classification ruling regarding certain knit camisoles. CBP states that it is also proposing to revoke any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions that are contrary to its position in this notice.

Broker Power has listed the 2004 general (column 1) duty rates for certain knit and crocheted apparel that is subject to a wool/fine animal hair (wool) category number. (The fiber that is in chief weight is the first fiber in the written description.)

The Journal of Commerce (JoC) has reported that a group known as the West Coast Marine Terminal Operators has announced a plan to pay for and install radio frequency identification tags on each of the estimated 30,000 trucks that haul containers in and out of West Coast terminals, with the system possibly being ready for use in March 2004. According to JoC, these tags would transmit information specifically related to the truck itself. (JoC, dated 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.

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).