GHY Tradelines

(Mark Rockwell – GSN)

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is the eighth agency to join Custom and Border Protection’s import safety analysis lab.

The nation’s chief automotive safety inspection agency, NHTSA, joined CBP’s Import Safety Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC), the multi-agency center that targets commercial shipments that pose potential threats to health and safety, said CBP on July 18.

CBP has seen a steady increase in the number of imports seized for safety reasons. The agency notes on its Website that the number of such seizures rose from 1,296 in 2007 to 3,768 in 2010. Read more here.
 

(Transport Topics)

A committee created by the owners of the Ambassador Bridge turned in just over 600,000 signatures, almost twice the number needed for a ballot initiative that would allow Michigan voters to approve or reject a new, competing bridge crossing.

But the Michigan Bureau of Elections must review the signatures and make a recommendation before the issue can be put on the November ballot, a state official said.

About 8,500 heavy-duty trucks daily cross the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.

Last month, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) reached a public-private partnership agreement with Canada to build a second bridge crossing between the Detroit and Windsor.
 

Yesterday, the U.S. Trade Representative posted two announcements in the Federal Register requesting input from the public and stakeholder groups on how its Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) negotiating priorities should be updated in light of the inclusion of Canada and Mexico in the list of TPP member countries.

Instructions for participation online, or in person, are included in the links posted below.

Request for Comments on Negotiating Objectives With Respect to Canada’s Participation in the Proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement

Request for Comments on Negotiating Objectives With Respect to Mexico’s Participation in the Proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement

The next negotiating round of the TPP will take place in Leesburg, Virginia from September 6-15, 2012.
 

(BJ Siekierski – iPolitics)

When talking about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Canada-EU comprehensive and economic trade agreement, Canadian proponents tend to drop in descriptors like ‘ambitious’ and ‘twenty-first century’ — the same can’t be said for the ongoing Canada-India negotiations.

A fifth round of talks for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement — CEPA — between Canada and India begin Tuesday in New Delhi amid sudden optimism from the Harper government about the possibility of concluding the deal in the near future. [...]

For negotiations that really only got started at the end of 2010 with a country of more than a billion people and a vastly different economy, completing a deal the government estimates could give the Canadian economy a ‘$6-billion boost’ would seem to be a coup.

But a glance below the surface of Fast’s optimistic timeframe shows that it’s based on signs that the deal is likely  to be comprehensive in name only. Read more here.
 

(Mike Godfrey – Tax-News.com)

The United States Senate Finance Committee has approved a bill that would establish permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia by removing the nation from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

The Jackson-Vanik amendment in the United States was introduced to prohibit most favoured nation status for non-market economies originally on the basis of human right concerns. The United States has retained the law but has each year since 1992 granted a waiver to Russia. The removal of Russia from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment will be tied to approval of the Magnitsky Bill, which introduces sanctions, such as visa denials and asset freezes on those believed to have perpetrated human rights offences in Russia. An updated version of the Bill, approved by the Senate Finance Committee last month, includes additional provisions to address corruption issues in Russia, and to ensure that the US Administration closely monitors and enforces Russian compliance with its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations. Read more here.