The Federal Maritime Commission said the following have filed applications for a license as a Non-Vessel-Operating Common Carrier (NVO) and/or Ocean Freight Forwarder (OFF)-Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI) pursuant to section 19 of the Shipping Act of 1984. The FMC also gave notice of the filing of applications to amend an existing OTI license or the qualifying individual for a license. Interested persons may contact the Office of Transportation Intermediaries, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, D.C. 20573, at 202-523-5843 or at OTI@fmc.gov.
House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., plans to introduce a bill later this year to create an overarching strategic economic dialogue between the U.S. and Brazil, to increase visibility and oversight of the bilateral trade relationship, Nunes said June 12. He spoke at a Subcommittee hearing on trade and investment opportunities in Brazil, where witnesses and lawmakers said the U.S. should work to ease trade flows between the countries to tap into Brazil’s vital, ever-growing market. The country has raised its global profile in recent years, they said, securing the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics; the new World Trade Organization Director General is Brazilian, and the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, will make a state visit this October.
Canadian customs broker Russell A. Farrow Ltd is changing its name to “Farrow” as part of an overall move to a new brand. Randy Motley, president of the Windsor-based broker’s Canadian operations, said he hopes the move will help “generate new business that will see us expand our job base in regional centers like Windsor, Cambridge, Detroit, Toronto, Edmonton, and Seattle.”
There's some concern that organizations that will be tasked with approving materials for a planned customs broker continuing education program will have a conflict of interest if they are also allowed to provide content for the program. That issue came up during a CBP Webinar June 6 on plans for the continuing education program. The conflict of interest question also came during the May 22 Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations meeting during some discussion of the largely nascent program. CBP has previously said it plans to seek applications from interested parties to accredit continuing education materials (see 13050222).
The April 2013 customs broker exam saw a 4.4 percent pass rate, CBP is telling industry executives, said Renata Pearson, president of CCRA Customs Compliance/Regulatory Affairs who also instructs a class for the exam for the Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of Northern California. While a CBP spokeswoman recently declined to provide an official pass rate (see 13053116), the agency historically has made the number known by disseminating it through various trade associations, said Pearson. Pearson said in an interview she recently discussed the rate with John Leonard, CBP executive director for Trade Policy and Programs.
CBP's validations of companies applying for the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program appears to be declining year to year, according to a list of C-TPAT program achievements released by the agency. While there's still time for 2013 to catch up to past years in terms of the number of validations, if validations this year continue at the current pace, they will be about half of the total validations completed in 2012. Through June 3, CBP has validated a total of 616 C-TPAT applicants, which includes 172 initial validations and 444 revalidations, said CBP. Last year, there were a total of 2,376 validations, including 640 initial validations and 1,736 revalidations, the report said. CBP didn't comment.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 28-31 in case they were missed.
Ralph Lauren’s April disclosure of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations is both a lesson in the importance of customs compliance programs and self-disclosure and an example of harsh government penalties harming a cooperative company, trade and FCPA lawyers said. The FCPA case rests on a series of alleged bribes, over a four-year period, of Argentina customs officials by an Argentinean subsidiary of Ralph Lauren. The bribe payments and gifts were paid through the company’s customs broker in Argentina. Ralph Lauren settled the allegations through Non Prosecution Agreements (NPAs) with the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission (for more on the case, see 130423243).
Send event information for inclusion in the International Trade Today Calendar toITTNews@warren-news.com.
CBP will not be releasing the pass rate for the April customs brokers exam, said an agency spokeswoman.