GHY Tradelines

(The Toronto Star – Les Whittington)

The latest outbreak of protectionism from the United States government flies in the face of Ottawa’s much-touted effort to work with Washington to ease trade restrictions along the border, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce says.

“It’s of considerable concern to us,” Chamber president Perrin Beatty told the Toronto Star. “The timing is, of course, terrible in that it contaminates the discussions on how we can make the border function more effectively.

Speaking of the new border deal about to be announced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama, Beatty said, “The whole point of the exercise was to look at how we can enhance trade rather than putting impediments in the way.”

The fresh threat of trade war between the Harper government and the White House stems from the $447-billion (U.S.) jobs legislation announced by Obama last week. It includes Buy American provisions that could exclude Canadian companies from bidding on billions of dollars worth of economic stimulus projects south of the border.

The move, which caught the Canadian government off guard, comes as Washington and Ottawa are in the final stages of negotiations over an historic bilateral pact meant to streamline border operations and enhance security and intelligence cooperation by the two governments. David Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, says the deal may be announced by Harper and Obama in several weeks. Read more here.
 

(Bellingham Herald – Caleb Hutton)

The main trucking lane at the Pacific Highway border crossing will close for about a month, starting Monday, Sept. 19.

Two other truck processing lanes will remain open, but southbound cargo wait times are expected to increase. The main lane will reopen Oct. 17.

A new processing booth is being built to speed up border crossing times. During the construction, Free and Secure Trade shipments also may be processed at the Lynden crossing between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily. The Sumas crossing is open to cargo shipments at all times.

For specific questions, contact Lynn Gardner, Blaine’s assistant port director of trade operations, at lynn.gardner@dhs.gov  or 360-332-2675
 

(World Trade Interactive)

In its final assessment of the eighth round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations held in Chicago last week, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said many issues saw significant advances while progress on others was slow. USTR said there are now consolidated texts in most of the 20 chapters being negotiated and that many of them are “moving toward closure,” including customs, technical barriers to trade, telecommunications, small and medium-sized enterprises, regulatory coherence, competitiveness and development. Work also moved ahead on texts for “somewhat longer and more complex chapters,” such as intellectual property rights and investment. Read more here.
 

Bridgestone, a Tokyo-headquartered manufacturer of marine hose and other industrial products, charging the company with conspiring to violate the Sherman Act and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

According to the court document, Bridgestone conspired to rig bids, fix prices and allocate market shares of marine hose in the United States and elsewhere and, separately, conspired to make corrupt payments to government officials in various Latin American countries to obtain and retain business.

The department said Bridgestone participated in the conspiracies from as early as January 1999, and continuing until as late as May 2007.

Bridgestone issued a statement, saying that the $28 million fine is a significant reduction from the applicable sentencing guidelines due to the company’s “extraordinary” cooperation in the investigation and remediation efforts. As part of the remediation efforts, Bridgestone has dismantled its International Engineered Products Department, closed its Houston office of Bridgestone Industrial Products of America, Inc., terminated many of its third party agents, and taken remedial actions with respect to its employees.

Read the DOJ press release here.
 

(Canadian Packaging)

The Consumer Goods Forum has announced the release of the Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability (GPPS) that will allow the consumer goods industry to better assess the relative sustainability of packaging.

The aim of the protocol is to help companies reduce the environmental impact of their packaging by providing a common language to address a range of business questions about packaging sustainability either within a company or between business partners. That common language consists of a framework and a measurement system. The framework entitled A Global Language for Packaging Sustainability was first published in June 2010. The metrics presented in the protocol published on September 6, 2011 deliver the measurement system.

The GPPS is part of the sustainability work stream at the Consumer Goods Forum, which is sponsored by two of the organization’s board members: Philip Clarke, chief executive officer at Tesco and Paul Polman, chief executive officer of Unilever. Read more here.
 

(New York Times – Keith Bradsher)

In the name of fighting pollution, China has sent the price of compact fluorescent light bulbs soaring in the United States.

By closing or nationalizing dozens of the producers of rare earth metals – which are used in energy-efficient bulbs and many other green-energy products – China is temporarily shutting down most of the industry and crimping the global supply of the vital resources.

China produces nearly 95% of the world’s rare earth materials, and it is taking the steps to improve pollution controls in a notoriously toxic mining and processing industry. But the moves also have potential international trade implications and have started yet another round of price increases for rare earths, which are vital for green-energy products including giant wind turbines, hybrid gasoline-electric cars and compact fluorescent bulbs.

General Electric, facing complaints in the United States about rising prices for its compact fluorescent bulbs, recently noted in a statement that if the rate of inflation over the last 12 months on the rare earth element europium oxide had been applied to a $2 cup of coffee, that coffee would now cost $24.55. Read more here.
 

(Industry Week – Chad Moutray, National Association of Manufacturers)

Overall manufacturing activity has weakened significantly as the year has progressed, mirroring challenges in the larger macroeconomic environment. Some of the headwinds were temporary, including the supply chain disruptions stemming from the Japanese disaster and dramatically higher energy costs resulting from Middle East unrest and rising global demand. While many of these transitory factors have abated, the economy remains stuck in neutral. Recent economic events have not helped matters, with businesses and individuals expressing rising anxieties in light of financial concerns in Europe, a highly-charged debate over raising the debt ceiling, continued high unemployment and wild gyrations in global equity markets. In light of these developments, economists and business leaders have downgraded their expectations for growth for the remainder of this year and next.

The NAM/IndustryWeek Survey of Manufacturers reflects this much-weaker sentiment. When asked about the current business outlook, manufacturers were generally positive, but they were significantly less optimistic than just three months ago. Whereas 86.4% of respondents were either very or somewhat positive in their business outlook in the June survey, only 65.4% said the same in the third quarter – a drop of over 20 percentage points. Many responders shifted from “somewhat positive” to “somewhat negative.” Nonetheless, it is important to note that nearly two-thirds of manufacturers had a positive outlook on the economy. Read more here.
 

(Journal of Commerce Online – William B. Cassidy)

TransCore Freight Solution’s spot market index climbs 47%

Truckload demand is stronger than the general economy, with TransCore Freight Solution’s spot market index climbing 47% from a year ago in August. Spot market freight demand even increased 4.5% from July to August. Over the past decade, freight volume dropped 2.9% on average from July to August.

Truckload carriers also are reporting steady demand. Swift Transportation this week said it expects freight volumes to be up 4% year-over-year in the third quarter.

“Jerry (Moyes) and I have visited over 50 customers in the last couple of months and the majority are positive on a strong holiday season,” said Richard Stocking, Swift’s president and chief operating officer. Stocking said many customers are concerned about future capacity. “It is amazing how fast capacity tightens when things get busy.” Read more here.
 

(Nunatsiaq News)

The European General Court has dismissed a bid by a group that includes Inuit to overturn the 2010 European Union prohibition on trade in seal products.

The decision, issued Wednesday, struck down an appeal by the industry itself, which is separate from an effort by the federal government to seek a rule change from the World Trade Organization.

A separate application by the coalition which questions how the ban would be enforced in Europe, is still before the court. Read more here.
 

(David Perera — FierceHomelandSecurity)

Customs and Border Protection would get slightly less under the Senate Appropriations Committee markup up of the annual Homeland Security Department spending bill than under the House of Representatives approved version.

Senate appropriators voted Sept. 7 on their version for the fiscal 2012 DHS spending bill, which would include $10.23 billion in direct appropriations for CBP–as opposed to the House, which voted on June 2 to for the amount of $10.34 billion. Fiscal 2011 ends on Sept. 30.

The largest difference between the two chambers lies in the Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure and Technology budget line, which the Senate would fund at $400 million and the House at $510 million — although both amounts are below the White House request of $527.62 million. Read more here.