On December 30, 2008, the Associated Press ran an article www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/12/30/ap5868609.html
about three furniture manufacturers in Mississippi setting up in a Foreign Trade Zone to save domestic...
As a means to assist U.S. importers in complying with the recently effective provisions in the Lacey Act calling for the species and genus of imported plants and plant products to be declared, APHIS has now added to the Lacey Act...
For U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), intellectual property rights is one of its priority trade issues, along with agriculture, antidumping and countervailing duty, import safety, penalties, revenue and textiles. The OECD...
I can report this because it happened to me and not a client. The Canada Border Services opened mail addressed to "Todgham Cherniak, Counsel, Lang Michener LLP". The Canada Border Services Agency knew the package...
BIS published a second major proposal on October 1, 2008. It deals with a new definition of “di minimis” in the context of foreign hardware bundled with U.S.-origin software. See...
In the October 3, 2008, Federal Register, BIS published rules which are intended to ease the intercompany transfer of technology and technical data. For more details see edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/E8-23506.htm
Under this...
Federal agencies long ago admitted they get lots of leads about possible violations, and some of them even turn into big cases, such as the airline anti-trust investigation currently being conducted in Europe, the U.S. and...
As federal courts become ever more reluctant to issue injunctions, patent holders find themselves turning more frequently to the International Trade Commission (“ITC”) to obtain exclusion orders against infringing goods. As...
In the area of cargo release, traders are accustomed to having CBP maintain all its information in one database. For the longest time, there was only one National Targeting Center and it handled national security and all other...
In December 2008, FDA published an update regarding its Food Protection Plan. Perhaps of most interest to international traders are the following provisions.
FDA established an International Notification Coordinator position to...
It was originally thought that USDA and Fish and Wildlife would issue their lists of common cultivars and common food crops by December 15, 2008, thereby making clear which imported products would be exempt from reporting under...
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was signed into law on August 14, 2008 and took effect on November 12, 2008. There remains much confusion about the impact of the CPSIA and so, in this article, we will attempt...
On December 15, 2008, the Governmetn of Canada plans to change a key immigration rule in order to assist Canadian companies more easily find skilled foreign labour. Canada will change a rule so that skilled professionals, such as...
On December 13, 2008, the United States Trade Representative indicated that there was not enough support to warrant another Ministerial to advance or resolve the outstanding Doha Round issues. Despite the Ocotober 2008...
I have to start with the caveat that I personally believe that compliance with laws is necessary, important and fundamental. However, today is a cold and rainy day, which may be the reason why I am sharing my thoughts about...
Despite the collapse of the U.S. auto bailout reached by Congress, Canada (and the Province of Ontario) can continue to move forward. My wish list would be:
1) GST Zero-Rating Holiday for 1 year (2009) (could be...
