The Commerce Department's Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) has posted to its Web site the following five monthly reports containing official February 2005 trade data from the Department of Census for imports and exports of textiles and apparel:
The International Trade Commission (ITC) has instituted an investigation at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) entitled, Advice Concerning Possible Modifications to the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences, 2004 Special Review.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has published in the April 15, 2005 Federal Register, its antidumping (AD) duty orders on magnesium metal from China and Russia. The ITA also states that the International Trade Commission (ITC) has made a final negative critical circumstances determination with respect to subject merchandise from China (thereby reversing the ITA's affirmative critical circumstances finding).
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued a notice requesting public comments by April 29, 2005 regarding a "commercial availability" petition it received under the U.S.-Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) from Oxford Industries:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message stating that the Quota Preprocessing (QPP) program test has been extended until December 31, 2006 for apparel in HTS Chapters 61 and 62 that are subject to absolute quota. Under QPP, quota priority and status are determined prior to the arrival of the carrier. Merchandise subject to TPLs or TRQs are not eligible for QPP. (See ITT's Online Archives or 01/11/05 news, (Ref:0501115) for earlier BP summary.) (QBT-05-044, dated 04/13/05, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/qbts/qbt2005/05_044.ctt/05_044.doc )
According to the Washington File, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana has blocked Senate vote on U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) nominee Rob Portman until a vote is scheduled for his bill, the Stopping Overseas Subsidies (SOS) Act, which is aimed at countering unfair countervailing subsidies in non-market economies, especially China. (Washington File Pub 04/13/05, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=April&x=20050413113532ebyessedo0.4256555&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html)
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued a notice requesting public comments by April 27, 2005 regarding a "commercial availability" petition it received under the U.S.-Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) on behalf of Dillard's Inc.*:
The Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements (CITA) has issued a notice requesting public comments by April 27, 2005 regarding a "commercial availability" petition it received under the U.S.-Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) on behalf of S. Rothschild & Co., Inc. of New York, NY*:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stating that its OASIS System was scheduled to be down for maintenance Saturday, April 9, 2005, between 5:00 a.m. EDT - 8:00 a.m. EDT, adding that prior notice (PN) confirmation numbers will not be transmitted back to filers during this downtime.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has issued an addendum to its February 25, 2005 notice which announced the product petitions that were accepted for further review in the 2004 Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Annual Review.