Call it Latin America’s controlled experiment in economics (as the Wall Street Journal did recently): Along the Western seaboard, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru embrace free trade and are working to lift restrictions on the movement of capital, goods and services,...
Will Look South Initiative Yield Results? Potential’s There.
by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor Business executives and trade analysts generally applaud the Obama administration’s new Look South Initiative, I found. (See my related post for details on this program to boost US exports.) “The initiative has the potential to help...
Care to Share Your Laptop’s Contents with Customs? You May Have to
by Peter Quinter, guest columnist I have been writing for years about US court decisions regarding the inspection of the contents of laptops, mobile phones, and other digital devices by officers of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), US Department of Homeland...
Reforms Ease US Export Controls, Constraint on Competitiveness
by Bill Armbruster, blog anchor Export controls have long bedeviled US business. Obviously, for national security purposes, some controls are needed. We don’t want our adversaries, or potential adversaries, to have easy access to items that could be used to attack the...
SolarWorld Moves to Close Loophole in Anti-Dumping Orders
SolarWorld has petitioned the US International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce to close a loophole in year-old trade remedies – through which, it claims, Chinese and Taiwanese manufacturers are dumping under-priced solar panels on the US market. It was...
What to Expect from CBP in 2014: 10 Predictions
by Peter Quinter, guest columnist Here is my annual list of predictions for US Customs and Border Protection in the year ahead: 1. President Obama will nominate and the Senate will confirm a new, permanent CBP Commissioner. 2. CBP’s...
Commerce Dept. Wants Your Input on Advancing US-Mexico Economic Dialogue
Here’s a chance to weigh in – and maybe help shape – trade policy. The Department of Commerce is seeking public comment on the topics to be addressed by the US-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) initiated by Presidents Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto in...
ITC Weighs Inquiry into Dumping of Refrigerant by China
Mexichem Fluor has petitioned the Dept. of Commerce International Trade Commission to open antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigations into imports of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane from China. Mexichem Fluor markets the refrigerant under the registered...
ITC Calls No Harm, No Foul on Imported Shrimp despite Foreign Subsidies
In a 4-2 vote, the US International Trade Commission has decided that the US domestic industry has not been materially injured by imports of frozen warmwater shrimp from China, Ecuador, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam. As a result, countervailing duties on shrimp from...
Sizing up the Senate DHS Budget Bill
Border security trumps trade facilitation in proposed homeland security budget appropriations | by Peter Quinter, guest columnist. In the proposed Fiscal Year 2014 budget approved by the US Senate Appropriations Committee on July 18, 2013, “Big Government” is going to...