C U S T O M S

CBP Issues Tougher Guidelines for Mitigation of Penalties Involving
Removal of Goods w/o Customs Authorization or Exam

CBP - Announces Mandatory Filing of Truck Electronic Manifests

Mandatory Filing of Truck E-Manifest to Begin in Washington, Arizona and North Dakota

US CBP - Proposal for advance trade data elements

Customs to phase in new import data requirements

US Customs and Border Protection intends to implement rules requiring importers to provide additional data to identify high-risk shipments by the end of summer, 2007. more...

ICE Arrests Two for Trafficking in Counterfeit Goods

Two U.S. citizens indicted for trafficking more than $2 million in counterfeit items were arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents. The goods seized included counterfeit Nike shoes and Prada and Coach handbags. more...

T R A N S P O R T A T I O N / T R A D E

Truck shipments take a dive

In a potentially worrisome sign for the U.S. economy, trucking shipments declined by almost 9 percent in November — the largest year-over-year decrease in almost six years, the American Trucking Associations said.  more...

NOL to open Vietnam subsidiary

Neptune Orient Lines has received approval from Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment to establish a wholly owned company to provide container transportation and logistics services in Vietnam. more...

GSP changes could drop some duty-free access

Thu Dec 21, 2006   By Alan Field  The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE

Six foreign trading partners could lose duty-free access to the United States market for some of their key exports because of a revamped trade program signed into law Wednesday by President Bush.

Brazil, Cote d'Ivoire, India, The Philippines, Thailand and Venezuela could lose trade benefits because of changes Congress made recently to the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences for developing countries, the U.S. Trade Representative's office said.

Previously, the six countries received a waiver to continue exporting certain goods to the U.S. on a duty-free basis even when the shipments exceeded thresholds that otherwise would have ended those benefits.

The changes to the GSP program were largely motivated by U.S. frustration with India and Brazil during the Doha Round of trade talks. Now, the Washington will be allowed to revoke such waivers when certain imports from one country exceed an annual cap of about $187.5 million, or when those imports comprise 75 percent of total U.S. imports of that product.

For example, India will lose duty-free access for gold jewelry and brass lamps, according to the USTR's preliminary assessment. From January through October, India shipped $1.6 billion in gold jewelry and $20 million in brass lamps to the U.S. under the GSP program. Brazil will lose duty-free access for brakes and brake parts, which totaled $242 million from January through October, and for ferrozirconium, which totaled $700,000, the USTR said.

Other products affected include gold jewelry imports from Thailand, valued at $611 million through October, wiring harnesses from The Philippines; methanol from Venezuela, and kola nuts from Cote d'Ivoire, valued at $4 million.

The USTR in February will publish a Federal Register notice that provides further details about the trade benefits to be revoked

If the world were a village of only 100 people there would be:

          60 Asians

              14 Africans

                  12 Europeans

                      8 people from central and south America, Mexico and the Caribbean

                          5 from the USA and Canada

                              1 from Australia or New Zealand

The people of the village would have considerable difficulty in communication

14 people would speak mandarin

8 would speak Hindi Urdu

8 English

7 Spanish

4 Russian

4 Arabic

The rest would speak more than 200 languages

In the village there would be

33 Christians

22 Moslems

15 Hindus

14 nonreligious, agnostics, or atheists

6 Buddhists

10 all other religions

In the 100 person community

80 would live in substandard housing

67 adults live in the village and half of them would be illiterate

50 would suffer from malnutrition

33 would not have access to clean safe drinking water

24 people would not have any electricity

Of the 76 that do have electricity, most would use it only for light at night

In the village there would be 42 radios, 24 TVs 14 telephones and 7 computers

7 people would own an automobile (some of them more than one.

5 people would possess 32% of the entire village’s wealth and these would all be from the USA

The poorest one-third of the people would receive only 3% of the income of the village

The following is also something to ponder

If you woke up this morning healthy - you are more blessed that the million who will not survive this week

if you have never experienced the danger of battle, the fear and loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pain of starvation - your are better off than 500 million people in the world.  If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back and a roof overhead and a place to sleep you are more comfortable than 75% of the people in this world.  If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If you can read this, you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

W E B S I T E S / E V E N T S