According to Journal of Commerce Online, as part of the Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union address, House Minority Leader Pelosi called for the physical inspection of all ocean containers entering the U.S., charging that the Bush administration's inspection standard is too low to protect the U.S. from terrorism. (JoC Online, 01/21/04, www.joc.com )

At its January 21, 2004 meeting, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) considered a petition from the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc. (NCBFAA) requesting that the FMC amend its non-vessel operating common carrier (NVOCC) bonding provisions to reflect a recent U.S.-China maritime agreement.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted a notice on its Web site announcing that the next Customs Broker Licensure Examination will be held on Monday, April 5, 2004.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted a list of the most common errors that cause the rejection of continuous transaction bond (continuous bond) applications and CBP's desired solutions for these errors.

In October 2003, the Coast Guard issued six final rules which adopted, with changes, a series of July 2003 interim rules that promulgated maritime security requirements mandated by the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (MTSA).

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, Inc. (NCBFAA), the National Industrial Transportation (NIT) League, and the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) have submitted to the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) joint additional comments in response to the FMC's reopening of the comment period on five petitions requesting that some or all non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs) be granted, variously, the ability to enter into confidentially negotiated service contracts with their customers, an exemption from establishing and publishing rate tariffs for ocean transportation, etc.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative and new shipper reviews:

Broker Power has listed the 2004 general (column 1) duty rates for certain knit and crocheted apparel that is 70% or more by weight silk or silk waste and is subject to a silk category number (7XX).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that the following non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs) and vessel operating common carriers (VOCCs) have become Sea Automated Manifest System (AMS) operational. According to CBP, the SCAC must be used in the entry/entry summary input to obtain cargo release via AMS. CBP notes that NVOCCs that are operational in Sea AMS are required to transmit electronic bill of lading data for all of their ports of call nationwide.