The Washington File reports that after the European Union (EU) member states were urged to renounce their bilateral open skies agreements with the U.S., the U.S. Mission to the EU stated that it values those agreements, and their termination would call into question the legal basis for the airline alliances and would be contrary to the interests of consumers, airlines, and communities. (Washington File Pub 07/22/04, available at http://164.109.48.86/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=July&x=200407221519551CJsamohT0.5732996&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html)
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued a notice requesting public comments by August 6, 2004 regarding twelve "commercial availability" petitions it received under the U.S.-Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) on behalf of Picacho, S.A.:
The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a press release announcing that it has determined that neither monitoring nor controls on exports of copper and copper-alloy scrap are necessary.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued a press release announcing that the U.S. has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) to review whether Japan has complied with earlier DSB recommendations and rulings against its restrictions on imported U.S. apples, as the U.S. does not believe Japan has complied with these recommendations and rulings in a reasonable period of time.
According to The Wall Street Journal, as public-health groups urge wider use of generic drugs to lower the cost of treating AIDS and other diseases in developing countries, U.S. trade negotiators, prodded by the drug industry, are seeking to strengthen protections in new trade pacts for more costly brand-name drugs. (WSJ, dated 07/06/04, www.wsj.com)
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has posted to its Web site the reports of 27 Trade Advisory Committees on the proposed U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
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Act (AGOA) for qualifying textile and/or apparel articles (textile articles) from Nigeria that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after July 14, 2004, and (2) quota reporting for certain apparel articles from Nigeria that are subject to the AGOA aggregate tariff preference level (TPL) and its sublimit.
On July 14, 2004, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4759, the "U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act." On July 15, 2004, the Senate passed H.R. 4759, clearing the measure for the President.
According to an article in the American Shipper, the insurance market is wary of issuing customs bonds for Chinese agricultural shipments due to an epidemic of fraud by importers of some agricultural goods (e.g. mushrooms, crawfish tail meat, honey and fresh garlic) from China seeking to avoid high U.S. antidumping duties. (See ITT's Online Archives or 07/13/04 news, 04071305 for BP summary of new CBP guidelines for bonds for agriculture/aquaculture goods subject to antidumping duties.) (American Shipper 07/04)
On January 17, 2003, President Bush issued Proclamation 7641 in order to modify the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) preference rules of origin for seven products, including certain alcoholic beverages, pearl jewelry, headphones, photocopier parts and accessories, etc.