GHY Tradelines

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Bridges Weekly)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”Canada is challenging the U.S.’s country-of-origin labelling (COOL) requirements for beef and pork at a meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlements Body (DSB). The Canadian government, backed by several business groups – including some from the U.S., claims that the implementation of COOL requirements is immensely costly forcing Canadian businesses to seek less money for their beef so as to absorb the cost of implementing the requirement. They maintain that COOL is a technical barrier to trade (TBT) and as such illegal under WTO law.br /br /“The COOL measure is not intended to address health or safety concerns,” Canada said in its opening statement. “The objective of the COOL measure was to distort the conditions of competition in the U.S. market to favour U.S. cattle and hogs compared to imported livestock.”br /br /The COOL act requires that consumers be informed of the country of origin of meat by a label on the sales package. To receive an “A” label, cattle must be born, raised, and slaughtered in the United States. Meat from cattle with a mixed life – for example, born and raised in Canada but slaughtered in the U.S. – must have a label indicating the mix. Read more a href=”http://ictsd.org/i/news/bridgesweekly/84784/”span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a.o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Journal of Commerce Online – R.G.Edmonson)/spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppemb style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal”span style=”FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic”President’s program focuses SBA, Ex-Im Bank, other agencies on initiative /span/b/emb style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal”i style=”mso-bidi-font-style: normal”span style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”br //span/i/bspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”br /The federal government will step up its efforts to help U.S. exporters sell goods abroad, the White House said Thursday.br /br /Several agencies will increase the number of trade missions and encourage foreign buyers to come to U.S. exhibitions, according to a report developed by the Export Promotion Cabinet, which includes the Secretaries of Commerce, State, Treasury, Agriculture and Labor and the heads of all the trade-related government agencies. The government will also be a commercial advocate for U.S. firms competing for international contracts and work to break down barriers to trade.br /br /The report puts trade promotion for small and medium-sized enterprises at the top of the priority list. The Small Business Administration identified more than 2,000 potential exporters in its central contract registration. Read more a href=”http://www.joc.com/government-regulation/export-initiative-emphasize-small-business”span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a. o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Bridges Weekly)/spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”U.S. President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI) is on track to double U.S. exports over the next five years, trade officials in Washington announced Monday. Gary Locke, the U.S. Commerce Secretary pointed towards the 17% increase in exports from this time last year, rising to slightly over US$1 billion. In order to achieve the five year goal, U.S. exports would have to maintain a year on year increase of about 15%.br /br /The encouraging indicators come from sources including the Commerce Department and the Export-Import Bank. The Obama administration says these data suggest the NEI will reach or exceed the intended goal.br /br /Critics, however, say the data is not being portrayed accurately and have expressed doubts that the 15% growth rate can be maintained. That the base data year being used by the Obama administration is 2009, a year which saw a three year low for U.S. exports, they say. Read more a href=”http://ictsd.org/i/news/bridgesweekly/84800/”span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a.o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Industry Week – Agence France-Presse)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”Trade tensions between the United States and China ratcheted up another notch on Sept. 15, as Washington called on the WTO to probe unfair Chinese trade practices. The United States asked the World Trade Organization to investigate China’s allegedly unfair treatment of U.S. steel and electronic payment providers, the first step toward sanctions. /spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”“We are concerned that China is breaking its trade commitments to the United States and other WTO partners,” U.S. trade representative Ron Kirk said. Amid mounting U.S. anger about China’s trade policies, Kirk’s office said it would ask the WTO for “consultations” about Beijing’s policies, a step that could lead to sanctions. Read more a href=”http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gVfHYNNMAgL_fDe4llcc5pT4g8uQ”span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a.o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Industry Week)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppemb style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal”span style=”FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-style: italic”MAPI predicts 6% growth overall in 2010 and 5% in 2011/span/b/emb style=”mso-bidi-font-weight: normal”i style=”mso-bidi-font-style: normal”span style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”o:p/o:p/span/i/b/pspan style=”LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA”While the pace of recovery in the general economy has clearly slowed, the deceleration is less visible in the manufacturing sector, according to the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI.br /br /“Despite less consumer spending growth in the second quarter, there was nevertheless some employment growth and modest wage increases. Also, the prolonged downturn and sluggish recovery have created pent-up demand for some durable goods, including sales of motor vehicles and appliances,” said Daniel J. Meckstroth, Chief Economist for the MAPI. “The inventory swing is greatest in manufacturing; exports are predominantly manufactured and benefitted from the fast global trade bounce back; and business investment in equipment rebounded much faster than consumer spending, thus making the pace of the industrial recovery stronger than that in the general economy.” Read more a href=”http://www.industryweek.com/articles/manufacturing_growth_will_continue_to_outpace_overall_economy_says_industry_group_22749.aspx?SectionID=3″span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a./span

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(CBSA)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”1. Pursuant to Customs Notice 10-007, the purpose of this customs notice is to notify industry that the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) has reached a final resolution with regard to the grace period for Advance Commercial Information (ACI) transmission requirements for US-loaded FROB cargo. Based on a thorough analytical review of all information acquired, the following determinations are issued:br /br /(a) The exemption for ACI notification of US-loaded FROB cargo is extended until December 31, 2010.br /br /(b) Effective January 1, 2011, the CBSA will require ACI transmissions for US-loaded FROB cargo as per CBSA current policy.br /br /2. Until the implementation date, marine carriers are encouraged to transit US-loaded FROB cargo information to the CBSA in order to achieve full compliance upon the full implementation date.br /br /3. During the interim period, the CBSA will be in a position to provide guidance and assist its clients in meeting the ACI obligations related to US-loaded FROB set forth by this customs notice.br /br /4. Please direct any questions concerning this notice to:br /br /Helene Porterbr /Manager, Commercial Unitbr /Advance Information and Programs Divisionbr /Pre-Border Programs Directorate, Programs Branchbr /Canada Border Services Agency/spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”E-mail: a href=”mailto:Helene.Porter@cbsa.gc.ca”span style=”color:#0000ff;”Helene.Porter@cbsa.gc.ca/span/a, Telephone: 905-308-8556/spanspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”o:p/o:p/span/p

pspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”(Lexology – Arent Fox LLP)?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /o:p/o:p/span/ppspan style=”FONT-FAMILY: ‘Verdana’, ‘sans-serif’; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial”Canada and Mexico are still account for a huge amount of imports ? over 25% of all imports entering the United States last year. And of course a large proportion of those imports are processed with claims that the product is eligible for NAFTA duty preference (zero or reduced duty rates and no mpf fees). Based on activity levels over the past year, it appears that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is now more aggressively probing to see if those NAFTA claims are valid. For U.S. importers, this can mean some level of disruption to gather and present paperwork acceptable to CBP for past entries, as well as the potential for loss of NAFTA benefits (higher duty rates and mpf), enforcement actions, and penalties if NAFTA claims turn out to be incorrect or cannot be supported with sufficient backup to satisfy CBP.br /br /Over the past few years, we have heard several pronouncements from CBP (as well as the Canadian and Mexican customs authorities) that more attention would be paid to verifying NAFTA origin claims. Anecdotal evidence indicates this has indeed occurred, with increased emphasis on validating NAFTA origin claims in a variety of ways. Read more a href=”http://www.arentfox.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=legalUpdateDispamp;content_id=2680″span style=”color:#0000ff;”here/span/a.o:p/o:p/span/p