U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of December 31, 2007. This report includes TRQs on various products such as beef, sugar, dairy products, peanuts, cotton, cocoa products, tobacco, certain BFTA, DR-CAFTA, Israel FTA, JFTA, MFTA, SFTA, UAFTA (AFTA) and UCFTA (Chile FTA) non-textile TRQs, etc. Each report also includes the AGOA, ATPDEA, BFTA, DR-CAFTA, CBTPA, Haitian HOPE, MFTA, NAFTA, SFTA, and UCFTA TPLs and TRQs for qualifying apparel and/or other textile articles, the TRQs on worsted wool fabrics, etc. (CBP's weekly TRQ/TPL commodity report, dated 12/31/07, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a proposed rule that would amend its regulations at 19 CFR Parts 4, 12, 18, 101, 103, 113, 122, 123, 141, 143, 149 and 192 to require Security Filing (SF) information from importers and additional information from carriers (10+2) for vessel (maritime) cargo before it is brought into the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted to its Web site a notice announcing that the Central Piedmont Community College and the International Freight Forwarders/Customs Brokers Association, in cooperation with CBP, will be holding a seminar (with am and pm sessions) on the Automated Commercial Environment on January 15, 2008 in Charlotte, NC. (If the January 15, 2008 sessions fill, there will be another session on January 16, 2008.)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a proposed rule that would amend its regulations at 19 CFR Parts 4, 12, 18, 101, 103, 113, 122, 123, 141, 143, 149 and 192 to require Security Filing (SF) information from importers and additional information from carriers (10+2) for vessel (maritime) cargo before it is brought into the U.S.
President Bush said Thursday he is “disappointed” that Congress failed to pass bills immunizing telecom providers for their alleged roles in a post-Sept. 11 warrantless wiretapping program. “The first priority of Congress when it returns in the new year must be to pass a good bill and get it to my desk promptly,” Bush told a press briefing. “They have a duty to give our professionals the tools necessary to protect the American people.”
President Bush said Thursday he is “disappointed” that Congress failed to pass bills immunizing telecom providers for their alleged roles in a post-Sept. 11 warrantless wiretapping program. “The first priority of Congress when it returns in the new year must be to pass a good bill and get it to my desk promptly,” Bush told a press briefing. “They have a duty to give our professionals the tools necessary to protect the American people.”
An FCC proposal to crack down on “traffic pumping” by changing its rules got a mixed response in comments filed late Monday. Big long-distance companies like AT&T continued to encourage the agency’s plan, but rural telecom groups warned against “over-regulating” and “unintended negative consequences.” George Mason University’s Mercatus Center concluded the FCC’s proposals are “flawed” and offered the agency a different approach.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that on January 26, 2008, a programming enhancement is scheduled to go to production that will extend to truck carriers and brokers the capability to arrive and export in-bonds by container/equipment.
An FTC decision on the Google-DoubleClick merger is “imminent,” Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester told reporters during a Tuesday conference call. “It could be this week, could be before the end of the year,” he said. The merger is “far more important in terms of media diversity… than what’s going on at the FCC,” he said. “We need to reiterate the need to address privacy concerns as part of this review,” he said, saying “a number of commissioners are concerned” and “if the commissioners fail to act… it will be a violation of trust, an abuse of their own role.” An EU hearing is set Jan. 21. FTC Chairman Deborah Majoras’ decision not to recuse herself from the merger review was “unprofessional,” he said. Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, agreed that Majoras hasn’t “satisfactorily answered the questions” about remaining involved in the matter. EPIC has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for details, not to delay the merger as some have alleged, he said. EPIC is building a legal challenge to Majoras’ refusal to recuse herself, and this could be made in an appeal of a merger approval if it comes soon, he said. European consumer group BEUC amplified those concerns in a Tuesday letter to Neelie Kroes, EU competition commissioner. DoubleClick’s ad-serving tools, offered on a standalone basis and not controlled by DoubleClick, nonetheless are “used by almost all top publishers to function as a kind of ’spigot’ for ad networks to access the inventory that publishers do not sell directly,” the group said. The merger will “eliminate nascent competition” between Google and DoubleClick for ad- serving tools and integrated ad networks, said BEUC. Web publishers likely would see lower revenue from ads served by Google, which could block non-Google ad networks from “interoperating” with publisher tools from DoubleClick, now seen as an “honest broker,” BEUC said. Consumers may see less content and less innovation online if Google raises rates for advertisers, who then pull back their advertising, hurting publishers downstream, it said. The so-called privacy race between search providers, which have all instituted data retention limits in recent months, may slow to a crawl, as “Google will lose any incentive” to tighten its privacy policies as its market dominance expands. Privacy is especially important to European audiences, BEUC said. The group also warned that Google could discriminate against customers based on price or other “commercial conditions,” if advertisers have access to consumer profiles held by Google that show, for example, a consumer is an “impulse buyer.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a general notice announcing that the 2008 annual user fee of $138 assessed for each customs broker permit and national permit held by an individual, partnership, association, or corporation is due by February 15, 2008.