During the February 13, 2008 meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC)1, CBP officials discussed, among other things, the progress that has been made toward achieving mutual recognition between CBP's Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and other countries' supply chain security programs.
During the February 13, 2008 meeting of the Departmental Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Related Homeland Security Functions (COAC)1, CBP officials discussed, among things, the proposed rule to amend 19 CFR 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 issued a news release announcing that beginning April 1, 2008, new applicants for the southern border Free and Secure Trade Commercial Driver Program will be permitted to enroll online via CBP's Web site.
The New York Times reports that in a confidential but confirmed decision, the World Trade Organization has again ruled against the European Union's import tariffs for bananas, possibly opening the door to U.S. commercial sanctions. The EU can still appeal in this long running WTO dispute in which Latin American countries and the U.S. have challenged the EU's preferential conditions for producers from African and Caribbean countries. (New York Times, dated 02/08/08, available at http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/09/business/news/38_12_122_8_08.prt)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted its agenda for the 2008 Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism Supply Chain Security Training Seminar for C-TPAT members that will be held February 26th through February 29th in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General has issued a report on the major management challenges facing DHS. The OIG states that while DHS has made progress creating the third largest Cabinet agency with multiple missions, it still has much to do to establish a cohesive, efficient, and effective organization.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release providing a 2007 "year in review" for the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued its weekly tariff rate quota and tariff preference level commodity report as of February 4, 2008. 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 02/04/08, available at http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/import/textiles_and_quotas/commodity/)
On December 26, 2007, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2008 was signed into law.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted a notice entitled Notice of Examination: April 2008 Customs Broker Examination, which announces that the next customs broker license exam will be held on Monday, April 7, 2008.