The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued an interim rule, effective May 24, 2004, establishing a new certification program for foreign production sites in countries where Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 (potato brown rot) is known to occur that wish to export articles of Pelargonium spp. (e.g. geraniums) and/or Solanum spp. (e.g. eggplant, huckleberry) to the U.S.
According to the World Trade Organization (WTO), as of April 23, 2004 there are 147 members of the WTO.
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued an interim rule, effective April 29, 2004, that amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement (1) President Bush's April 23, 2004, decision to revise U.S. sanctions against Libya; and (2) the transfer to BIS from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the licensing jurisdiction for exports to Libya of items subject to the EAR.
The ITA states that it is rescinding Tancheng from the AD duty new shipper review because Tancheng withdrew its request for review and no other party objected to its withdrawal of that request.
The ITA states that it will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess AD duties, in line with the 2.57% corrected AD rate, on all appropriate entries.
According to U.S. government sources, within the next week to ten days U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is expected to begin documentation exams of certain entries of knit-to-shape garments in HTS 6110 which claim a country of origin other than China (i.e., that the garment's panels are knit-to-shape in a country other than China and then sent to China to be linked and looped).
The Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) held a quarterly meeting on April 2, 2004 in Washington, DC to discuss and receive updates from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials on various trade and customs issues.
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) administers FirstGov.gov (http://firstgov.gov), which is the official U.S. gateway to all government information.
In the April 21, 2004 issue of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bulletin (CBP Bulletin) (Vol. 38, No. 17), CBP issued a notice proposing to modify a ruling regarding the country of origin marking for Italian-origin jewelry chains and clasps assembled in the U.S. CBP states that it is also proposing to modify any treatment it has previously accorded to substantially identical transactions that are contrary to its position in this notice.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has issued its 42nd Annual Report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003. The FMC states that its report is structured on an office-by-office basis and contains a synopsis of each unit's activities and accomplishments during the past fiscal year, with special sections devoted to areas of particular interest.