Week In Review : Compliance

Bourne The European Liner Affairs Association board, which met in Taipei this week, approved the closure of the Brussels-based organization by July 1. Container carriers established the ELAA in 2003 to persuade the European Commission of the value for maintaining the ocean carrier conference system. While the ELAA failed in this effort, the association helped smooth the transition of the i...

The U.S. Trade and Development Agency has awarded a $207,000 technical assistance grant to help improve Caribbean aviation safety. The grant with the Executive Secretariat of the Caribbean Aviation Safety and Security Oversight System (CASSOS) will promote the development and harmonization of civil aviation regulations, practices and procedures in the region by supporting a Caribbean Airp...

Ten House lawmakers representing districts on the southwestern border on Thursday urged the Senate to get moving on the stalled confirmation of Alan Bersin to be commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Baucus The Congressional Border Caucus expressed concern in a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus that CBP is without a permanent leader at a time when securit...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it has amended its Farm Storage Facility Loan program to allow producers to build cold storage facilities to store fresh fruits and vegetables. The program is part of the USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” initiative and uses discretionary authority provided by the 2008 Farm Bill. “On-farm storage may cost a lot of build, but it can help ...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said Wednesday it has launched a fact-finding investigation into ocean vessel capacity and shipping equipment availability for U.S. exports and imports. The announcement came as FMC Chairman Richard Lidinsky and several shipper and carrier representatives testified to members of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation about th...

Delegates from the International Transport Workers Federation meeting in Berlin on Wednesday launched a campaign to persuade all governments to commit resources to end the increasing problem of Somalia-based piracy. The group also voted "to support the inclusion, where appropriate, of armed military personnel on ships in addition to the commitment by flag states of naval vessels," but sai...

The U.S. Maritime Administration said a fourth obsolete vessel from its reserve fleet in Suisan Bay, Calif., departs Thursday for scrapping. The Winthrop Victory, a Victory cargo ship built during World War II, will be towed to BAE Systems’ San Francisco shipyard, where it will be cleaned of marine growth and loose exterior paint prior to departure from the area. The vessel will be fo...

The U.S. House of Representatives sent to the Senate Wednesday a bill to extend Federal Aviation Administration programs through the end of June. Passage of the measure marks the 12th time FAA authorization has been extended since it was scheduled to expire Sept. 30, 2007. The current extension is scheduled to expire March 31. The short-term extensions are stopgap measures to keep avi...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday provided relief for the underfunded Highway Trust Fund and extended funding authorization for surface transportation programs through the end of the year as part of a $17.6 billion jobs bill. The HIRE ACT, which includes tax cuts for those who hire unemployed, transfers $19.5 billion in interest foregone since 1998 from the general fund to the Highway Trust F...

Bunning Three weeks after standing in the way of an emergency bill to sustain unemployment benefits and highway programs for an extra 30 days, Republican Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky is blocking confirmation of two Obama administration nominees for trade-related posts. Michael Punke is President Obama's choice to be U.S. ambassador and permanent representative to the World Trade Organiza...

Kirk The U.S. and Indian governments announced an initiative to encourage small businesses in both countries to participate more in bilateral trade. The initiative, “Integrating U.S. and Indian Small Businesses into the Global Supply Chain,” is part of the “Framework for Cooperation on Trade and Investment,” signed by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Indian Minister of Commerce and I...

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will travel to Japan on April 5-9 to promote U.S. agricultural exports to the Asian country. Vilsack will meet with Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Hirotaka Akamatsu, as well as U.S. exporters and Japanese importers. “My mission on this trip will be to continue to push hard to open markets and to bolster an open, rules-ba...

Crist Florida Gov. Charlie Crist called on the Florida state legislature to pass two bills that he said would boost Florida ports. Crist said he was joining with state Sen. Jeremy Ring and Rep. Lake Ray to promote two proposals: • House Bill 963, which he said would help Florida more effectively compete with other states vying to attract port-related businesses. • House Bill 1169, ...

The House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime will hold a hearing Wednesday on whether there is sufficient ship capacity to serve U.S. foreign trade. The subcommittee is planning another hearing next week on the "state of United States’ merchant fleet in foreign commerce.” Wednesday's hearing is because of anecdotal evidence and media reports that "suggest that the ability of the...

Maersk Line Ltd. said it will add a third U.S.-flag tanker to its fleet. The U.S.-flag arm of the A.P. Moller - Maersk Group said it will reflag the 2009-built Samho Moonstone, which will be renamed Bro Hawaii when reflagging process is completed in mid-April. The 5,664-deadweight-ton ship will operate in Asia spot markets targeting U.S. preference cargoes. Tuesday, Maersk Line Ltd. w...

Kelly Ed Kelly, general manager of the Transportation Security Administration’s Air Cargo division, was posthumously awarded the Jim Foster Award for Excellence this week by the Airforwarders Association. Kelly died late last year after contracting an illness. He was responsible for conceptualizing and implementing a strategy to screen all air cargo transported on passenger planes. A key p...

The Association of American Railroads has named Thomas Farmer assistant vice president of security, responsible for working with individual railroads and federal oversight agencies on freight rail security. Farmer joins the railroad lobby from the Transportation Security Administration, where he was acting general manager for mass transit. He also was senior counsel for intermodal program...

The leading U.S. East Coast dock labor union and the largest U.S. retailer have thrown their support behind an industry coalition petition asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to suspend for up to 20 days in April restrictions on all Chilean table grapes imports. “The International Longshoremen’s Association is 100 percent behind the petition,” said Richard P. Hughes Jr., ILA preside...

Kirk The Obama administration’s initiative to double exports within five years is based on the premise that companies in the international marketplace grow faster, add jobs faster and pay higher wages, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in address to the National League of Cities on Tuesday. A critical part of the effort is to provide more counseling and other resources to make it ea...

The Department of Homeland Security is accepting applications from trade and transportation professionals interested in serving on the Commercial Operations Advisory Committee for a two-year term, expected to begin in early 2011. The panel provides industry input to DHS and Treasury Department on matters related to trade enforcement, border security, trade facilitation and department oper...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has received 13 ocean transportation intermediary license applications for review. The agency received a non-vessel-operating common carrier license application from Vinpac Container Line, Baldwin Park, Calif. (Norman Lok, president). The FMC received NVO-ocean freight forwarder license applications from Zust Bachmeier International, Humble, Texas ...

Truckers are unhappy with a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plan to next year ban trucks built before 1994. At a meeting that attendees described as "heated," truckers complained that a second part of the plan would ban trucks not equipped with engines that meet or exceed 2007 federal emissions standards starting in 2017. Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor...

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen has been named “port person of the year” by the American Association of Port Authorities. Allen will receive the award next week during the association’s annual spring meeting in Washington. The ports group said Allen was selected for the award because of his efforts to make the marine transportation system safe and efficient. “Adm. Allen rec...

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said his office will release this month an extensive report shedding light on sanitary and phytosanitary rules around the world that are being used as unfair technical barriers to protect domestic agriculture interests from imports. “As tariff barriers fall, these non-tariff barriers are becoming some of the most difficult challenges our exporters face,”...

credits:Siemens AG, Munich/Berlin Stimulus grants designed to create wind power jobs are mostly going to foreign manufacturers to build wind farms in the United States, according to a report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University's School of Communications in Washington. The Energy Department has doled out more than $2 billion from the 2009 Recovery Act for renewabl...

Virginia Gov. Bob McConnell’s administration could shelve a plan to privatize three container terminals at the Port of Virginia, according to a story last week in the Newport News-based Daily Press. CenterPoint Properties, a real estate industrial trust that specializes in logistics facilities, last year made an unsolicited offer to enter into a long-term agreement with the Virginia Port ...

Facilities at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at King Point in New York are in urgent need of repair or replacement, according to a blue ribbon panel appointed by Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood. According to a report, "several structures, including the academy’s piers, have become unserviceable, while others have required urgent repairs to prevent further significant deterioration ...

The U.S. Coast Guard is imposing restrictions on ships arriving from the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. A Department of Homeland Security assessment found that under U.S. law and the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, that ports in Timor-Leste "are not maintaining effective antiterrorism measures." In order to enter the United States, ships that have been to Timo...

Obama President Obama, in an effort to stimulate U.S. economic growth, signed an executive order on Thursday for the federal government to “use every available federal resource in support” of his recently announced National Export Initiative. That order also created the Export Promotion Cabinet, which includes the secretaries of State, Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, as well as ...

U.S. farmers are pressing Capitol Hill to approve recently proposed legislation to eliminate financing and travel restrictions affecting agricultural trade with Cuba. “If I can leave you with one thing to remember today, it is that the Cuban embargo is working; it is working against U.S. farmers and ranchers,” Bart Schott, first vice president of the National Corn Growers Association, tol...

Thirty senators are warning that U.S. dairy farmers and processors will be harmed by increased imports of dairy commodities from New Zealand that could result from upcoming talks to open up trade among several Asian nations. The United States and the Trans-Pacific Partnership are scheduled to conduct their first round of negotiations on a regional Asia-Pacific trade agreement later this m...

Executive directors of the nation’s two largest seaports expressed dismay Thursday at the lack of funds dedicated to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach during the first round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants in February. The U.S. Department of Transportation gave away $777 million in grants, but none for the two ports. “I was shocked that L...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission said Tuesday that China Shipping Container Line and three intermediaries have agreed to pay a total of $625,000 in civil penalties for alleged violations of the Shipping Act of 1984. The FMC said under a compromise agreement the parties settled and paid penalties, but did not admit to violations of the act or FMC regulations. China Shipping agreed ...

The U.S. government should develop a plan to better guide transportation policy and investment during the next decade instead of continuing to rely on annual budgets based on wish lists from various constituencies, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood last month. Rendell Rendell spoke during a session of the National Governors Association annual meeting abo...

The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday to reimburse about 2,000 Department of Transportation employees who were laid off for two days without pay when the department’s legal authority to spend money expired on March 1. Congress passed emergency legislation to extend spending authority for another 30 days and subsequently passed a jobs bill that included an extension of spend...

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday passed the 2010 American Workers, State, and Business Relief Act (H.R. 4213), which includes legislation providing for a one-year retroactive extension of the biodiesel tax incentive. Expiration of the tax incentive on Dec. 31 has essentially caused the production and use of biodiesel in the United States to cease. Structured as a federal excise tax credit...

The European Union and Singapore have begun talks toward establishing a free trade agreement. Officials are meeting in Singapore this week. “The proposed free trade agreement will strengthen economic ties between Singapore and the EU, provide new opportunities for traders and consumers alike and contribute to generating growth in our economies," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gutch sa...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has adopted as a final rule, with changes, an interim rule that requires inspection of Canadian grown fruits and vegetables imported into the United States. The rule also removes the user fee exemption for certain commercial vessels, trucks, railcars and planes, as well as international airline passengers ente...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said it’s proposing to allow, under certain conditions, imports of all varieties of Fuji apples from Japan into the United States. Based on recently completed research, the agency has determined that the measures in place for Fuji (Malus domestica) apples imported into the United States from Japan would be eff...

Ahern Jayson Ahern, who retired in December as acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has joined the Chertoff Group, a security-consulting group established last year by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Ahern's hiring has not been formally advertised through a press release, but the veteran law enforcement official is listed on the company's Web site...

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said Wednesday that starting next year it will ban from its terminals trucks built before 1994, and that truck drivers may begin to apply for grants and financial assistance to replace older, more polluting trucks. The agency will provide $28 million designed to encourage the owners of up to 636 pre-1994 drayage trucks that regularly serve the...

Many U.S. agriculture producers and manufacturers are losing significant export sales to Mexico because of tariffs that country imposed after Congress last year nixed a cross-border trucking program designed to fulfill free trade obligations, business groups said Tuesday. Representatives for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Potato Co...

A coalition of Delaware River port companies and labor unions petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday to suspend for up to 20 days in April the restrictions on all table grapes imported from Chile and to clarify that Crimson seedless variety grapes will be exempted from those restrictions this year. The petition, organized by the Chilean & American Chamber of Commerce of ...

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has received three ocean transportation intermediary license applications for review. The agency received a non-vessel-operating common carrier license applications from AA Cargo, South San Francisco, Calif. (Arben Hodza, chief executive officer). The FMC received an NVO-ocean freight forwarder license application from Hafen Consolidators USA, Miam...