The Journal of Commerce (JoC) reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) may face a manpower problem as it begins to enforce export compliance as well as import. According to JoC, the Trade Act of 2002 requires exporters to go through roughly the same advance-reporting requirements as importers but the number of CBP inspectors on the export side is currently outnumbered more than 10 to 1 by the import staff. (JoC Pub 03/29 -04/04/04 www.joc.com)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has again updated its information on its upcoming seminars at nine airports on the advance electronic information requirements for inbound air cargo. CBP has updated its previously updated information in order to:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated administrative reviews of the following antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders for the specified companies listed in the ITA notice:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued the final results of its changed circumstances reviews of the countervailing (CV) duty orders on certain corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products and cut-to-length carbon steel plate products from Germany. As a result, the ITA is revoking these CV duty orders for entries of subject merchandise with a time of entry on or after April 1, 2004.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum dated February 17, 2004, amending its November 7, 2002 implementing instructions for non-textile products under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA).

The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a notice announcing the 2004 in-quota ("low duty") tariff-rate quota (TRQ) quantity for tuna and skipjack (tuna) in airtight containers, not in oil, weighing with their contents not over 7 kilograms (kg) each, that is not the product of any U.S. insular possession, as described in HTS 1604.14.22 (6% duty).

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule, effective March 30, 2004, which, among other things, amends the Commerce Control List (CCL) to remove "National Security " (NS) controls from, and to impose "Regional Stability" (RS) controls on, certain items in order to conform with certain provisions of the Export Administration Act (Act), which limits the duration of U.S. unilaterally imposed NS controls.

On March 4, 2004, the Senate passed its version of H.R. 1047, the "Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2003."