U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site an "ACE Toolkit," which consists of three documents: (i) Overview of Periodic Monthly Statement; (ii) Entry Summary Accounts Revenue (ESAR) I & II Overview; and (iii) ACE Ambassador Locations. According to CBP, the toolkit provides a general overview of the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and various components of key functionality.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum on applying its earlier instructions on the filing and acceptance of claims for preferential tariff treatment of goods made under the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) to Honduras and Nicaragua.
According to sources at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), CBP hopes to complete its programming of the Automated Commercial System (ACS) to accept CAFTA-DR claims via the Automated Broker Interface (ABI) by May 1, 2006.
According to the Washington File, the USTR has released its 2006 report of unfair trade barriers in foreign countries, called the National Trade Estimate on Foreign Trade Barriers (NTE), where China is listed as having the most barriers, followed by the European Union, Japan, and South Korea. The article notes that most of the problems listed in the 2006 report are the same ones that have appeared in earlier reports. (Washington File (dated 03/31/06), available at http://usinfo.state.gov/eap/Archive/2006/Apr/02-251571.html )
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a short administrative message stating that it is reminding all brokers that establishing and maintaining brokerage operations outside of the Customs Territory of the U.S. is inconsistent with the broker's obligation to exercise responsible supervision and control while conducting customs business.
CBP has issued its weekly tariff rate quota (TRQ) commodity report as of March 27, 2006. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, tuna, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa powder, tobacco, certain JFTA, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, UAFTA and UCFTA TRQs, etc. This report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, CBTPA, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA (CFTA) tariff preference levels (TPLs) for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly quota commodity report, dated 03/27/06, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a general notice announcing that truck carriers who are not Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Truck Carrier Accounts can now use third parties to transmit truck manifest information, including advance cargo information, electronically in the ACE Truck Manifest system, via electronic data interchange (EDI) messaging.
The long-awaited House telecom bill got a warm reception from Bell companies, but net neutrality proponents Tues. called it a step backward for the Internet (see separate story in this issue). The bill puts net neutrality regulation in the FCC’s hands, but it specifically orders no rulemaking -- a provision critics say would limit the FCC’s enforcement power. Cable gave the bill conditional approval, praising progress from earlier drafts. The bill doesn’t include a buildout provision -- considered a key stumbling block in building bipartisan support on the committee.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site under "What's New" an Attachment A entitled "Factories Comprising Qualifying Industrial Zones in Egypt Designated by U.S. Federal Register Notice of December 29, 2004." This list was Attachment A to a February 10, 2005 CBP memo, and names the industrial cities and the companies in each of the three QIZs. The list also contains a few "individual factories" for which the list states information is to be provided. (See ITT's Online Archives or 06/03/05 news, 05060315 for BP summary encompassing the February 10, 2005 CBP Memo.)Attachment A List available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/import/international_agreements/free_trade/free_trade_area/israel_attachment.ctt/israel_attachment.doc