This summary report highlights the most active textile and apparel tariff preference levels1 from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “Quota Weekly Commodity Status Report.” It also lists the TRQ commodities on CBP’s weekly “TRQ/TPL Threshold to Fill List.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that officers assigned to George Bush Intercontinental Airport’s Air Cargo division seized a rug stitched with crocodile skin earlier this month. The shipment arrived from Lagos, Nigeria. CBP officers referred the rug to U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) for further examination, which determined the reptile stitch pattern was in fact crocodile skin. Crocodiles are an endangered species and the importation of their skins or leather is prohibited. The rug was turned over to FWS for final disposition.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has newly posted the recording and presentation slides for its October 24, 2011 webinar on the ITDS Product Information Committee's draft report on the results of three pilot studies conducted to validate the business case for using e-commerce data, such as global product numbers/codes and electronic product catalogs. This webinar is part of a series of live trade webinars that CBP is hosting. Each webinar is made available for subsequent on-demand viewing online. Topics of previous webinars include ACE Courtesy Notice of Liquidation, the role of the broker, simplified entry, ACE Post Summary Corrections, etc.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted documents on changes to the Customs and Trade Interface Requirements (CATAIR) regarding the PGA Message Set. Specifically, changes were made to the Chapter on Participating Government Agencies (PGA), which presents records that provide data to government agencies that will participate with modernization of the automated cargo systems. Changes were also made to Appendix T, which provides codes and qualifiers for the PGA Message Set.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's November 16, 2011 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 45, No. 47) contains 4 notices of ruling actions:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued the following news releases:

A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to CBP's Web site as of November 15, 2011, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. These messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota on dried milk provided for in Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 7 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule will open on January 3, 2012 with a low-duty quantity of 5,261,000 kg.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota for milk and dried cream provided for in Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 8 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule will open on January 3, 2012 with a low-duty quantity of 3,321,300 kg.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a memorandum announcing that the 2012 tariff rate quota for cheddar cheese and cheese substitutes as provided for in Chapter 4, Additional U.S. Note 18 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule will open on January 3, 2012, with the below-listed countries having the following low-duty quantities: