GHY Tradelines

(The Toronto Star – Vanessa Lu)

Truckers slowed freight traffic in and out of CP Rail’s main intermodal terminal in Vaughan on Monday, over a contract dispute with the railway’s subcontractors.

About 80 owner-operators who move CP’s railcars by truck for three companies – General Cartage, Canada Drayage Inc. and Sim-Tran – parked their vehicles, and blocked the main entrance on Rutherford Rd. near Highway 427 early Monday. Big rigs were parked along the side of the road as well in the centre lane.

Harjeet Singh say they are protesting a new three-year contract, introduced July 9, that changes how they are paid, effectively cutting their wages by about 30%. Singh said this comes after an earlier 30% cut in 2009, which they accepted given the tough economic times then. Read more here.
 

(MM&D)

The Ontario government is currently looking for input regarding how goods and supplies are transported through the province.

The ministry of transportation has entered the consultation phase for its Mulitmodal Goods Movement Strategy for Ontario.

It has posted a consultation paper, and a workbook on its website, and is asking for people to review and respond to the proposal. Questions outlining the type of feedback the government is hoping to receive have been included in both documents.

The public will be able to access the paper, which is entitled Building Competitiveness: A Proposed Multimodal Goods Movement Strategy for Ontario, for the next 60 days, and comments will be accepted during that same period.

I am pleased to inform you that a consultation document on the strategy entitled Building Competitiveness: A Proposed Multimodal Goods Movement Strategy for Ontario has now been posted on both the Environmental and Regulatory registries for a period of 60 days. Your input will be a critical step in finalizing the strategy and in helping shape the directions of an initial action plan to implement the strategy. I encourage you to read the attached consultation document and workbook and reply to us with any comments.

The main document is available here and the workbook is accessible here. Comments can be e-mailed (mailto:multimodalgoodsmovement@ontario.ca) to the ministry.
 

(Bloomberg)

The U.S. set tariffs as high as 82% on large, residential washers from South Korea and 72% on the products from Mexico, concluding the items are sold below production costs to drive out American competitors.

The Commerce Department in a preliminary finding today responded to Whirlpool Corp. (WHR)’s complaint that LG Electronics Inc. (066570) and Daewoo Electronics Corp., both based in Seoul, and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) of Suwon, South Korea, use unfair trade practices. Laundry appliances accounted for 30% of Whirlpool’s 2011 revenue of $18.7 billion, according to its annual report.

Daewoo should pay 82%, LG 12 percent, Samsung 9.6% and all other companies 11% for products made in Korea, the Commerce Department said. For machines made in Mexico, the agency announced duties of 72% for Samsung and a Whirlpool affiliate and 33% for other companies. A final decision will be issued in December, the agency said.

LG and Samsung, in separate statements, contested the Commerce Department decisions. In addition, Samsung said it no longer makes washers in Mexico, and Whirlpool said it no longer ships units to the U.S. from Mexico. Read more here.
 

Nerissa Allen, Western Area Import Coordinator for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, would like to invite you to a CFIA information session being held on Sept 18, 2012 in Burnaby B.C. This day will be dedicated to providing information on various CFIA programs, and will also give you an opportunity to provide feedback to CFIA on the issued discussed. Further details are included in the attachment.

The session is open to importers and brokers. Reserved seating is limited and is on a first come basis-so register early if you are interested.

A second session will be held in Manitoba, for which a separate invitation will be sent.

If you would like to register or have any questions please contact Nerissa directly. Her contact information follows:
Nerissa Allen, BSc.
Western Area Import Coordinator
BC – Coastal Region
Canadian Food Inspection Agency
4321 Still Creek Drive Burnaby, BC
Nerissa.Allen@inspection.gc.ca
Telephone 604-666-8813
 

(Vicki Needham – The Hill)

Business groups supporting Russian trade legislation are increasingly worried Congress will leave for its five-week recess before completing the measure.

If Congress does leave before removing Russia from the terms of the 37-year-old Jackson-Vanik law, U.S. exporters will be the ones that suffer, the groups say.

Russia in August is expected to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), a move that requires the United States to repeal Jackson-Vanik, a U.S. law originally aimed at encouraging the emigration of Russian Jews with the threat of higher tariffs on Russian products.

If the United States does not lift Russia from Jackson-Vanik, the world’s sixth-largest economy will be able to raise tariffs on U.S. goods under the WTO’s rules.

“This is a mess and it is why the USA Engage and the National Foreign Trade Council are urging this Congress and this president to get their act together right now and enact Russia PNTR [permanent normal trade relations],” Dan O’Flaherty, NFTC’s vice president, wrote in a Monday blog post. Read more here.
 

(David Levine – Slate.com)

The Trans-Pacific Partnership could completely change intellectual property law. But the details are being kept secret. 

Imagine being invited to formally offer input on a huge piece of legislation, a proposed international agreement that could cover everything from intellectual property rights on the Internet to access to medicine to investment rights in the agreement’s signatory countries. For 10 minutes, you’d be able to say whatever you’d like about the proposed law—good, bad, or indifferent—to everyone involved in the negotiations. But there’s a caveat: All of your questions, all of your input, on what may be the most controversial part of the package, would have to be based on a version of the proposed international agreement that was 16 months old. And in that 16-month period, there were eight rounds of negotiations that could have changed any and all of the text to which you had access, but no one could tell you if that version was still accurate.

Would you still take the deal? Read more here.

The Recourse Program is responsible for providing clients with a fair and impartial review of decisions and actions taken in support of border legislation. The Program is intended to ensure “that the decisions taken by CBSA officials are fair, transparent and accurately reflect the Agency’s policies and the Acts administered by the CBSA. Individuals can complete a written submission if they disagree with an enforcement action or a trade decision made by the CBSA.”

In January 2011 the Recourse Program implemented an Enhanced Complaint Mechanism (ECM) to track and report on complaints, compliments, comments or suggestions directed to the CBSA by clients.

Click here for more information.
 

(Adam Belz –  Star Tribune)

It sounded like a routine assignment for HRST Inc., a quick trip across the Canadian border for repair work on a power plant.

Two engineers from the Eden Prairie, Minn.,-based company set out for southern Ontario to do the work. They flew to Detroit and drove toward the border crossing at Port Huron, Mich.

And that’s as far as they got.

“The border guard thought that whatever work we were doing, the work could have been executed by Canadian workers,” said Philip Novak, a systems engineer for the company.

Such roadblocks to commerce have become a significant problem for businesses that do work on both sides of the border. The Canadian government estimates that hangups of cargo and travelers at crossings cost $16 billion annually on that side of the border alone. Read more here.
 

(Lloyds Loading List – Stuart Todd)

Drewry’s monthly Airfreight Price Index, an average of rates across the westbound Asia-North America and westbound Asia-Europe trades, has plummeted to its lowest level in almost three years.

The shipping consultants say the downward trend is being driven by the “deteriorating macroeconomic environment which has caused continued contraction in demand.”

Airfreight traffic remained largely flat through 2011 and has been declining since, Drewry underlines. “It is dependent on high value, time-critical products which have suffered as cash-strapped Western consumers have tightened their belts as the economic outlook has darkened.”

The Index’s reading reached 109.8 in March (November 2008 = 100), reflecting the peak in rates this year, as product launches, such as Apple’s new iPhone, boosted short term demand. But pricing has since dipped markedly. Read more here.
 

(IndustryWeek – AFP)

Officials claim falling export prices due to reduced polysilicon costs, new technologies not domestic deals.

Beijing on Friday denied accusations of solar panel dumping, saying it hoped Chinese and EU manufacturers could negotiate an end to a dispute that threatens a trade war.

EU ProSun, a group of more than 20 European solar panel makers, suspects Beijing of providing their Chinese rivals with loans and other subsidies enabling them to sell their goods below cost. They have filed a complaint with the European Commission calling for it to impose tariffs, following a U.S. move in May to slap hefty anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar products which Beijing blasted as “protectionist.” Read more here.
 

(Lee-anne Goodman – Canadian Press)

Cites port security at Prince Rupert, floats idea of tax on containers from Canada

The U.S. ambassador to Canada is praising a report by an American federal agency even as two of its commissioners take public issue with the study that examined Canadian “cargo diversion” and cited suggestions to remedy the problem that could prove prohibitively costly to importers.

The report by the five-member Federal Maritime Commission is complimentary to Canada while fully advocating healthy competition among ports in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, David Jacobson said from Ottawa in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“It emphasizes the need for competition … from where I’m sitting, I read this as good news for Canadian ports,” he said.

Two commissioners, however, disagree. Read more here.

(STR Trade Report)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has made available a final programmatic environmental impact statement that analyzes the potential environmental and socioeconomic effects associated with its activities along the U.S.-Canada border. CBP is also accepting through Aug. 27 comments on a draft decision concerning the specific approach it plans to adopt.

The PEIS analyzes the environmental and socioeconomic effects of current and potential future CBP border security activities along the northern border from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, including an area extending approximately 100 miles south of that border but excluding the Alaska-Canada border. Due to the diverse and natural environments along the border, the PEIS analyzes four regions: New England, the Great Lakes, east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Rocky Mountains.

The final PEIS is intended to provide CBP with information on the potential for direct, indirect and cumulative environmental impacts that could result from any future proposals to secure and otherwise facilitate legal trade and travel through the northern border. It does not define effects for a specific or planned action but instead analyzes the overall effects of activities supporting CBP’s homeland security mission and looks at the following alternatives for enhancing those activities.

Read more »

(Bloomberg – Simon Kennedy)

China’s fabled export competitiveness is on the wane and that has implications for the rest of the world economy, conclude Morgan Stanley economists Spyros Andreopoulos and Sung Woen Kang.

Their estimates show the profits of Chinese exporters from trading with the U.S. shrank 20% to 30% between 2004 and 2010 as domestic labor costs grew and their currency’s climb against the dollar lowered revenue once translated back into yuan.

With such forces likely to keep weighing on margins, chances are the rest of the world will have to pay more for Chinese goods, resulting in “global developments of high importance,” the economists said in a July 25 report. Read more here.
 

An updated list of recently published government memorandums, notices, regulations and decisions for the week ending July 27, 2012 is now available on our website here.
 

(Bloomberg)

Congress probably will delay action on legislation to ease U.S. trade relations with Russia until after that country joins the World Trade Organization next month.

The measure, sought by U.S. companies such as Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) (CAT), was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee on a voice vote yesterday. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters he doesn’t plan a vote next week on the measure because the House has a full schedule of other issues to consider.

With lawmakers scheduled to leave Washington next week for a monthlong recess, the delay would preclude enactment before Congress returns in September. Read more here.
 

(The Canadian Press)

Federal Maritime Commission singles out Prince Rupert, B.C.

An American federal agency is suggesting Canadian ports taking in U.S.-bound cargo, in particular Prince Rupert, B.C., lack the tight security measures in place in the United States for cargo shipped directly to its ports.

The report by the five-member Federal Maritime Commission points out that Prince Rupert isn’t a “CSI” port. CSI is an acronym for the Container Security Initiative, a program implemented by U.S. Customs and Border Control to pre-screen more than 86 per cent of U.S.-bound container cargo.

“Vancouver, Montreal and Halifax are CSI ports; Prince Rupert is not,” reads the report obtained by The Canadian Press on the eve of its official release. Read more here.
 

(Daily Commercial News)

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Genome Canada and Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions are partnering in a $600,000 project that will help protect consumers from Listeriosis, a serious foodborne illness.

The project aims to map the genome of Listeria bacteria so that more rapid tests can be developed. Current test methods take at least five days. Genomic techniques could improve accuracy and cut testing time significantly, allowing the CFIA and industry to more effectively identify unsafe foods.

“The Harper Government is committed to improving Canada’s already robust food safety system,” said Agriculture Minister, Gerry Ritz. “Through investments in science and innovation, we are giving industry the opportunity to better identify and reduce risks for consumers, meaning safer food for Canadian families.” Read more here.
 

(The Associated Press)

A customs broker orchestrated a scheme that brought at least $100 million worth of Chinese textiles, Indian cigarettes and other goods to the United States without paying more than $10 million in tariffs and other fees, according to a federal complaint unsealed Wednesday.

Gerardo Chavez, 42, is president of the San Diego Customs Brokers Association, a trade group that represents 45 brokers doing business on California’s border with Mexico. The complaint says his companies “facilitated” about $500 million in trade between the United States and other countries over the last five years.

Chavez and two other defendants were taken into custody Wednesday, according to U.S. Immigration and Enforcement. Five other defendants were at-large. Read more here.
 

(Canadian Business)

After years of imposing tough sanctions, Canada announced a push Wednesday to open up economic relations with Myanmar, saying International Trade Minister Ed Fast and a delegation of business leaders would travel to the strategically-placed Southeast Asian nation in September.

Fast will be the first cabinet minister to visit the country since trade sanctions were eased at the end of April and Canada announced it would open an embassy in the capital, Rangoon, in recognition of Myanmar’s moves to improve human rights and democracy.

But despite Ottawa’s optimism over a trade relationship, some pro-democracy and human rights groups are warning that the country formerly known as Burma is still facing serious human rights issues. Read more here.
 

(MercoPress)

For the second time in a row a study from World Bank’s Global Trade Alert points Argentina as the world’s most protectionist country. In a report released by the institution, Argentina appears as the country which applies the most restrictions to control foreign trade for the second time in a row.

Argentina tops the list of countries with more commercial restrictions, both for imports and exports, and also for foreign currency controls. Read more here.