U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site various materials related to presentations made at the February 26 - March 1, 2006 meeting of the Trade Support Network (TSN).

On March 15, 2006, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4944, the Miscellaneous Trade and Technical Corrections Act of 2006. After being passed by the House, H.R. 4944 now goes to the Senate. (Congressional Record, dated 03/15/06, available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/B?r109:@FIELD(FLD003d)@FIELD(DDATE20060315).)

(An incorrect BP summary was published in ITT on February 28, 2006, 06022805. A new version is being issued in order to correctly indicate that CBP's (indefinitely postponed) "Phase 4" enforcement of mandatory advance electronic information requirements for truck carriers was to have been effective only for ports that had ACE e-manifest as an option for truck carriers.)

CBP has posted a summary of changes to the Automated Export System (AES) Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) on its Web site, indicating that Version 1.0 was changed on March 9, 2006 as follows:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a notice announcing the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) for peanuts that are provided for in HTS Chapter 12, Additional U.S. Note (AUSN) 2 and entered under HTS 1202.10.4020, 1202.10.4040, 1202.20.4020, 1202.20.4040, 2008.11.2500, and 2008.11.4500 during the April 1, 2006 through March 31, 2007 period.

CBP has issued an ABI administrative message announcing that the address and phone numbers of the Headquarters client representative branch changed effective March 1, 2006. The new address and phone numbers are as follows:

CBP has posted a presentation that provides information on the Periodic Monthly Statement (PMS), a feature of its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE). According to CBP, this presentation was developed for members of the trade community to utilize in their presentations to other members of the trade community as part of the ACE and PMS outreach effort. The presentation discusses the benefits of PMS, which include: (1) providing additional flexibility and potentially significant cash flow advantages, (2) allowing the broker to select either a national or a port statement, (3) allowing the broker to pay on behalf of the importer on either an importer or broker statement from the importer or broker Automated Clearing House (ACH) account, etc. (CBP's ACE Periodic Monthly Statement overview, dated March 2006, available at http://www.customs.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/briefings_info/trade_pms_presentation.ctt/trade_pms_presentation.pdf.)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted the February 2006 version of its Modernization Monthly newsletter to its Web site. Articles in this issue include (partial list):

CBP has issued its weekly tariff rate quota (TRQ) commodity report as of February 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 02/27/06, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site a report for the trade regarding the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE)/International Trade Data System (ITDS) Standard Data Set (SDS), which is updated through February 20, 2006 and is based on SDS version 4.4.