The Washington Trade Daily (WTD) has reported that the Senate began debate on March 3, 2004 to repeal the current Foreign Sales Corporation/Extraterritorial Income Tax Exclusion (FSC/ETI) regime. According to Senate Finance Committee Chairman, Sen. Grassley, the FSC/ETI could be replaced with the Jumpstart Our Business Strength Act (JOBS Act) which would use all of the money from the repeal to provide a 3 point tax rate cut on income from U.S.-based manufacturing. (WTD Pub 03/04/04, www.washingtontradedaily.com, Sen. Grassley's press release dated 03/02/04, available at http://finance.senate.gov/press/Gpress/2004/prg030204.pdf)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has posted to its Web site the draft text of the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), which is dated March 1, 2004.
According to a press release issued by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, on March 4, 2004, the Senate passed its version of the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003.
On February 20, 2004, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) issued an order denying a November 2002 petition filed by the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, Inc. seeking an investigation under section 11(c) of the Shipping Act of 1984 of certain activities in the New York/New Jersey Port District.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its second version (dated March 1, 2004) of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and responses regarding its final rule requiring 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.
On March 3, 2004, President Bush determined to not provide import relief to the U.S. pipe fittings industry with respect to certain ductile iron waterworks fittings even though the International Trade Commission (ITC), in its product-specific Section 421 market disruption investigation of such products imported from China, had proposed remedies in which additional duties would be implemented for a three-year period.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are developing a new security initiative aimed at identifying and catching possible terrorists before they board a U.S. bound plane. CBP Commissioner Bonner states that such a program could help avoid the kind of flight cancellations that happened in December over terrorist fears. Bonner added that the program would be voluntary and that they were considering seven specific sites. (WSJ, dated 03/01/04, www.wsj.com )
The Commerce Department's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has issued its Major Shippers Textiles and Apparel Report, which contains selected general import statistics by date of import from the Census Bureau through December 31, 2003 by country and category (including merged and part category).
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.
Broker Power is making available by email its lists of 2004 general (column 1) duty rates for knit and crocheted (knit) and woven apparel in Chapters 61 and 62 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), and their associated categories.