In November 2005, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a notice announcing that the 2006 annual $125 user fee that is assessed for each Customs broker permit and national permit held by an individual, partnership, association, or corporation is due by January 20, 2006.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site its answers to questions submitted by the trade community at its November 2005 Trade Symposium.

The Washington Post reports that China has resolved to shift some of its foreign exchange reserves away from the U.S. dollar and into other world currencies in a move likely to push down the value of the greenback. The article states that the new policy reflects China's fears that too much of its savings is tied up with the dollar. (WP, 01/10/06 www.washingtonpost.com )

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued its weekly quota commodity report as of January 3, 2006. This report includes tariff-rate quotas (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 01/03/06, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)

D.C.-based independent telecom analyst firm Precursor is getting out of the research brokerage business after 6 years, CEO Scott Cleland confirmed Thurs. Cleland said Precursor, which has gotten high marks in Institutional Investor rankings as an independent analysis firm, is downsizing and will concentrate in the future on advising a smaller group of customers in targeted areas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a memorandum providing instruction for the filing and acceptance of claims for preferential treatment of goods made under the U.S.-Morocco Free Trade Agreement (MFTA), which took effect on January 1, 2006.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued additional instructions of a clarifying nature regarding its instructions on the requirement in new 19 CFR 102.23 for entries of textile and apparel products listed in 19 CFR 102.21(b)(5) to identity the origin-conferring manufacturer through a manufacturer identification code (MID).

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site the December 2005 issue of its Modernization Monthly newsletter, which discusses, among other things, new Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) capabilities coming in 2006 and 2007.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site notes from the Trade Support Network's (TSN's) Plenary Session that was held on September 26-29, 2005.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an administrative message on the erroneous generation of January Periodic Monthly Statements (PMS) one month early.