On March 18, 2004, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced that it had entered into a new partnership with Florida state House and Senate leaders and with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to strengthen security for personnel at Florida's seaports.
The Journal of Commerce Online (JoC Online) reports that the World Customs Organization (WCO) is urging its member nations to work together in an effort to boost transportation security in the wake of the Madrid commuter train bombings. WCO called for its members to implement without delay anti-terror measures it has developed. WCO also stated that it will speed up the pace of work conducted by its specialized bodies with regard to international transport security, physical security of containers, effective customs controls, etc. (JoC Online Pub 03/18/04, www.joc.com)
The World Customs Organization (WCO) has issued an amending supplement (No. 4, dated August 2003) to the Harmonized System Explanatory Notes (ENs). (Although not binding on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the ENs are followed by CBP whenever possible.) (This is Part II of a multi-part series of summaries on this amending supplement. See future issues of ITT for additional summaries.)
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held its second Secure Trade in APEC Region (STAR) Conference on March 5 & 6, 2004 in Via del Mar, Chile. Among other issues, the conference's agenda covered maritime security and air transportation security.
On March 22, 2004, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta addressed the National Industrial Transportation League (NITL) meeting in Arlington, VA. Highlights from Mineta's remarks include (partial list):
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an ABI administrative message stating that a foreign-based consignee should not be sent in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) interface.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) states that an unscheduled outage of 30-45 minutes will occur on March 29, 2004 at 00:01 EST. During the outage, incoming ABI and AMS messages will be queued, and then processed when the ACS system returns to operational status. (Adm: 04-0559, dated 03/22/04, available by fax or email, by emailing documents@brokerpower.com )
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (Offset Act) annual report of disbursements for fiscal year (FY) 2003.
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has issued two notices announcing that, following receipt of requests from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), it has instituted investigations under 19 USC 3804(f) regarding the potential economy wide and selected sectoral effects of the proposed Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) including the Dominican Republic, and the proposed U.S.-Morocco FTA.
In the March 10 and 17, 2004 issues of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 38, No. 11 and 12), CBP issued notices (a) proposing to revoke two classification rulings on karaoke machines, (b) proposing to modify two classification rulings on certain multiple switches, and (c) granting Lever-Rule protection to Tomy Corporation. 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 these notices.