The Office of Foreign Assets Control is publishing the names of two newly-designated Pakistan nationals whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13224, "Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten To Commit, or Support Terrorism." OFAC is publishing the names of thirteen Colombian individuals whose property and interests in property have been unblocked pursuant to Executive Order 12978, "Blocking Assets and Prohibiting Transactions With Significant Narcotics Traffickers."

1. This is an update to US Postal Inspection Service - Most Wanted Posters, adding 1 and modifying 1 RPL record.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association reacts after a hearing about China’s exchange rate policy and the current trade imbalance that went before the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, states the American Shipper magazine. The hearing discussed legislation that would allow duties to be imposed on Chinese imports to address currency undervaluation allegations.

“Higher tariffs have never proven to be a wise solution for American economic growth,” said Stephanie Lester, RILA vice president for international trade. “RILA supports economic engagement with China and addressing our trade gap with China. We firmly oppose legislation that threatens to cut off access to the U.S. market and drive up prices for consumers.”

RILA has warned that higher tariffs would negatively effect U.S. businesses and its consumers.

To read more about RILA's reaction, click here.

Global Semiconductor Provider Completes Enterprise-wide Implementation
of Export Compliance Solution

EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ, April 21, 2010 -- Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management (GTM) solutions, today announced that Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) implemented its Export Compliance solution to automate and maintain compliance with international export regulations.

The enterprise-class on-demand solution has enabled Infineon to streamline its process for license determination and sanctioned party screening across its high volume, highly complex supply chain.

Screening over 10,000 daily transactions across 12,000 customers worldwide, Infineon needed a robust and scalable solution to automate compliance with all export regulations for shipping products to foreign countries, as well as the measures to ensure compliance with national and international anti-terrorism regulations.

I'm not quite seeing the link between a color-changing billboard and a smarter supply chain (If you get it, please explain in the comments) but this is a very interesting video.

Global Semiconductor Provider Completes Enterprise-wide Implementation of Export Compliance Solution

Management Dynamics, a leading provider of Global Trade Management (GTM) solutions, today announced that Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) implemented its Trade Export solution to automate and maintain compliance with international export regulations. The enterprise-class on-demand solution has enabled Infineon to streamline its process for license determination and sanctioned party screening across its high volume, highly complex supply chain. Follow this link to read the full article.

If your company is considering utilizing a free trade agreement such as NAFTA, or wants to maximize the savings from a free trade agreement, read our Trade Agreement Best Practices Benchmark.

This is a rollover to update duty rates for Korea FTAs and PTAs. This rollover updates the following duties and taxes: Adjustment Rate, Special Emergency, Korea-EFTA FTA Concessive, Korea-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, Korea-Chile FTA Concessive, Korea-Singapore FTA Concessive, Korea-EFTA FTA Concessive Duty for Switzerland, Korea-EFTA FTA Concessive Duty for Norway, Korea-EFTA FTA Concessive Duty for Iceland, and Value Added Taxes. This rollover also adds a new FTA of Korea-India FTA Concessive, affecting all the chapters.

Please take a minute to answer the following unscientific and highly subjective poll! Based on your answers, I will feature more posts on these exciting trade compliance categories in the future.

World Trade Magazine will be presenting an upcoming webinar on direct import in the global supply chain on Tuesday, May 25th at 2:00 pm EST.

Earlier this year Walmart announced projected cost savings of 5 – 15% by product category with an expanded direct import program. While retailers, consumer goods companies and most global manufacturers have been importing for years, there is renewed interest in understanding all of the elements of a direct import program and the opportunity areas that can drive new supply chain efficiencies and boost product profitability.

This webinar, presented by Management Dynamics and World Trade Magazine, will take a look at the foundation technologies for a direct import program, explore the implementation options by working with a global logistics provider, and discuss a number of successful case studies.

The webinar will be Tuesday, May 25 at 2pm EST. Please register today by following this link.

Leading Apparel Retailer Implements Supply Chain Visibility Solution to Improve Vendor Collaboration and Proactively Manage In-Transit Delivery Issues

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced that voluntary product standard DOC PS 20-10 “American Softwood Lumber Standard” will supersede DOC PS 20-05 effective June 1, 2010. The Standard establishes sizes and requirements for developing and coordinating the grades of softwood lumber, the assignment of design values, and the preparation of grading rules.

Presented by Management Dynamics and World Trade Magazine, expert speakers from Ocean World Lines and Management Dynamics will take a look at the foundation technologies for a direct import program, explore the implementation options by working with a global logistics provider, and discuss a number of successful case studies.

The Journal of Commerce has a great article on Visibility into Compliance - New mandates have shippers and software providers thinking more strategically about trade compliance:

HTS numbers have been added and invalidated for the EU Tariff. Preferential Duty Rates have also been added, changed, and deleted. The following HTS chapters are affected: 03, 07, 08, 16, 20, 22, 39 and 84.

CANADA

In Part 2 of my "Made in America" feature, let's take a look into the requirements for a product to be considered "Made in America."

The National Retail Federation (NRF) reports that retail imports have increased and will continue to increase for the next several months, states the International Freighting Weekly magazine. Febuary was the first month in 2010 that reported an increase in imports, followed by predictions of about a 2 to 10 percent increase each month following.

According to the World Trade Organization, global trade is set to rebound in 2010 with growth expected at 9.5%. Exports from developed economies are expected to increase by 7.5%, while shipments from the rest of the world should rise by around 11%. This strong expansion will help recover some, but not all, of the ground lost in 2009, when global trade contracted by 12.2%. For more information, click here.

Sign up below, and you will automatically receive any new Trade Compliance posts in your inbox, the same day they are posted. Multiple posts in the same day are condensed into 1 email (so you won’t be bombarded by updates!) No posts, no emails. Pretty convenient, right?

Updates have been made to US Export Controls. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is publishing this final rule to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the understandings reached at the September 2009 plenary meeting of the Australia Group (AG). This rule also amends the EAR to implement a decision recommended at the 2009 AG Plenary that was adopted under the AG intersessional silent approval procedures in October 2009. BIS also published a final rule in the Federal Register on Friday, December 11, 2009, that revised the EAR by amending entries for certain items that are controlled for national security reasons in Categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Part I (telecommunications), 5 Part II (information security), 6, 7, 8, and 9; adding new entries to the Commerce Control List, revising reporting requirements, and adding and amending EAR definitions. That final rule contained errors that affected Export Control Classification Numbers 1A004 and 5A001. This document corrects these errors. The following Categories are affected: 1 and 2.

With all the recent talk about exports, MSNBC has a new section of articles completely focused on the concept of 'Made in America.'

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative presented the 2010 National Trade Estimate (NTE) to Congress yesterday. The NTE describes significant barriers to U.S. trade and investment faced in the last year, and also outlines the steps taken to address those issues. Ambassador Ron Kirk reported the addition of two new reports that focus on sanitary and phytosanitary barriers as well as technical barriers to trade. These barriers harm the ability of America’s agricultural producers and manufacturers to export worldwide. Kirk issued the following statement to Congress yesterday:

This year, we’ve gone beyond the obligatory reporting to focus on some of the toughest hurdles America’s farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and service providers face when they try to sell overseas. USTR will take the information in these new reports, as well as in the National Trade Estimate itself, and use all the tools that we have to get these markets open to American products.

Check out the key elements of the National Trade Estimate, as well as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's ideas to reduce sanitary and phytosanitary barriers and technical barriers to American exports.