U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has published in the Federal Register its compliance schedule for the required advance electronic submission of information for cargo brought into the U.S. by rail. According to CBP, the dates when rail carriers will be required to comply vary depending on the port of entry at which the rail carrier will be arriving in the U.S.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a new informed compliance publication (dated March 2004) entitled "What Every Member of the Trade Community Should Know About: Vending Machines and Their Parts Under the HTSUS." CBP states that this publication is a study of the classification of vending machines and their parts under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTSUS).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued to the ports and posted to its Web site separate instructions regarding (1) the use of visas to make claims for duty-free treatment under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) for qualifying textile and/or apparel articles (textile articles) from Sierra Leone that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after April 5, 2004, and (2) quota reporting for certain apparel articles from Sierra Leone that are subject to the AGOA aggregate tariff preference level (TPL) and its sublimit.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a press release announcing that a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel has agreed with the U.S. that Canada's grain distribution system is unfair and violates Canada's WTO obligations. The panel did, however, find against the U.S. with respect to its claims that certain practices of the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) are unfair. (USTR Press Release 2004-28, dated 04/06/04, available at http://www.ustr.gov/releases/2004/04/04-28.pdf)

Due to the large number of bills introduced during the week of March 29, 2004 through April 2, 2004, this is Part II of a two-part series of summaries.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted a notice to its Web site stating that the third 2003/2004 "low duty" tariff rate quota (TRQ) for specialty sugar for the April 19, 2004 through September 30, 2004 period opens for 2,000,000 kilograms on April 19, 2004 at 1:00 p.m. EDST or its equivalent in other time zones. CBP notes that this TRQ is expected to oversubscribe at opening moment.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated changed circumstances antidumping (AD) duty reviews to consider revoking the AD duty orders on industrial nitrocellulose (INC) from China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and United Kingdom, due to requests to the revoke the AD duty orders.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued a notice stating that it has postponed the preliminary antidumping (AD) duty determinations on carbazole violet pigment 23 from China and India to June 18, 2004 (from April 29, 2004).

Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. The following have been issued since BP's most recent update:

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has issued a notice announcing that it is withdrawing its June 20, 2002 proposed rule that would have, among other things, allowed inspectors from APHIS to require that cargo be returned to the port of first arrival or, if convenient, another location as specified by APHIS for inspection when necessary.