Announcements
Andrew P. Vance Memorial Writing Competition
CITBA and Brooklyn Law School (BLS) sponsor this annual Writing Competition to encourage law students who are interested in careers in customs and international trade law. The competition honors the memory of Andrew Vance, past president of CITBA and a distinguished practitioner and public servant. Entrants must be currently enrolled in a JD or LLM program at any of the nation's law schools. Additional information and instructions for participation in this competition is forth in the PDF below.
The deadline for submissions is May 24, 2013.
Click here to view winners since 1999.
 | Vance Flyer |
USCIT Proposed Rules
U.S. Court of International Trade Survey
Guidance on Best Practices for Preventing Unlawful Diversion of Dual-Use Items Subject to the Export Administration Regulations
On August 31, 2011, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued guidance entitled "2011 Best Practices for Preventing Unlawful Diversion of U.S. Dual-Use Items Subject to the Export Administration Regulations, Particularly through Transshipment Trade."
A press release regarding this guidance, including a summary, can be obtained here.
Thomson Reuters Survey Request Of CITBA Members
Thomson Reuters is developing an international trade current awareness and news publication. It is conducting a survey of CITBA members to achieve the following objectives:
- Increase understanding of what current awareness and news CITBA members currently receive;
- Find out how CITBA members receive their international trade current awareness and news information; and
- Discover the international trade current awareness and news needs of CITBA members.
If you would like to participate in the survey, please click here.
President Obama Nominates Judge Evan Jonathan Wallach to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
The White House announcement of the nomination can be viewed here.
Opportunity for CITBA Members to Comment on Proposed Foreign Trade Zone Regulations
In the first meaningful update in some time, the Foreign Trade Zones Board proposes a "major" revision to its regulations. The revisions involve changes related to manufacturing and value-added activity, as well as new rules designed to address compliance with the requirement for a grantee to provide uniform treatment for the users of a zone. Comments on the proposed rules must be received by April 8, 2011. Details on the proposed rules and comment/filing requirements are detailed in the attachment below.
In addition, the Foreign Trade Zones Board is holding open forums on February 7 and 9, 2011 in Washington, DC to discuss the proposed regulations. Details on the open forums can be found at: http://ia.ita.doc.gov/ftzpage/letters/freeforums.html.
| FTZ Proposed Regulations |
Opportunity for CITBA Members to Comment on Proposed State Regulation Regarding the Revision of U.S. Munitions List Category VII
As part of the President’s Export Control Reform effort, the U.S. Department of State proposes to amend the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to revise Category VII of the U.S. Munitions List (tanks and military vehicles). The proposed rule would revise Category VII to describe more precisely the defense articles described therein. Comments on the proposed regulation must be submitted by February 8, 2011. Details on the proposed regulation are in the attachment below.
| 2010 December USML Proposed Regulation |
Opportunity for CITBA Members to Comment on Proposed State Regulation Regarding Revisions to the U.S. Munitions List
As part of the President’s export control reform initiative, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) at the U.S. Department of State seeks public comment on revisions to the United States Munitions List (USML) that would make it a “positive list” of controlled defense articles, requests that the public “tier” defense articles based on the Administration’s three-tier control criteria, and identify those current defense articles that the public believes do not fall within the scope of any of the criteria’s tiers. A “positive list” is a list that describes controlled items using objective criteria rather than broad, open-ended, subjective, or design intent-based criteria.
DDTC is not seeking with this advance notice of proposed rulemaking input on whether particular defense articles should or should not be controlled on the USML or whether any defense articles should be controlled differently. Rather, it is only seeking input on how the USML can be revised so that it clearly describes what is subject to the jurisdiction of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), how defense articles are identified by tier, and what current defense articles do not fall within the scope of any of the tiers. Guidelines for revision of the USML toward this end are provided in the proposed regulation. Comments on the proposed regulation must be received by February 8, 2011. Details on the poposed regulation are in the attachment below.
| 2010 December USML Proposed Regulation |
Opportunity for CITBA Members to Comment on Proposed BIS Regulations Regarding the Revision of Descriptions of Items and Foreign Availability
As part of the President’s export control reform initiative, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is seeking public comments on how the descriptions of items controlled on the Commerce Control List (CCL) of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) could be more clear and positive and ‘‘tiered’’ in a manner consistent with the control criteria the Administration has developed as part of the reform effort. The request for comments on how items on the CCL could be tiered includes a request for comments on the degree to which a controlled item provides the United States with a critical, substantial, or significant military or intelligence advantage; and the availability of the item outside certain groups of countries. Comments on the proposed rules must be received by February 7, 2011. Details on the proposed regulations are in the attachment below.
| 2010 December CCL Proposed Regulation |
Opportunity for CITBA Members to Comment on Proposed BIS Regulation Regarding the Strategic Trade Authorization License Exception
This proposed rule would add a new license exception to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). The exception would allow exports, reexports and transfers (in-country) of specified items to destinations that pose little risk of unauthorized use of those items. To provide assurance against diversion to unauthorized destinations, transactions under this license exception would be subject to notification, destination control statement and consignee statement requirements. This proposed rule is part of the Administration’s Export Control Reform Initiative undertaken as a result of the fundamental review of the U.S. export control system announced by the President in August 2009. Comments on the proposed regulation must be received by February 7, 2011. Details on the proposed regulation are in the attachment below.
| 2010 December License Exception Proposed Regulation |
Opportunity for CITBA Members to Comment on Possible CIT Procedural Change
Court Rule 73 - Filing of Official Documents - provides the basis for the Clerk to request “from the appropriate customs officer” documents relating to an action commenced in the Court. The Clerk’s office has reported that soon it may be hard pressed to find storage space in the Court for such documents.
Members of the Advisory Committee have voiced their opinions about this change and the problems it may create. We seek to afford CITBA members, and others who may learn of this proposal, the opportunity to comment as well. If interested, please respond via email to msor888@rode-qualey.com.
CITBA Comments Regarding The Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking On Courtesy Notices Of Liquidation
| May 17 Comments |
Andrew P. Vance Memorial Writing Competition
CITBA
and Brooklyn Law School (BLS) sponsor this annual Writing Competition
to encourage law students who are interested in careers in customs and
international trade law. The competition honors the memory of Andrew
Vance, past president of CITBA and a distinguished practitioner and
public servant. Entrants must be currently enrolled in a JD or LLM
program at any of the nation's law schools. Additional information and
instructions for participation in this competition is forth in this link (you will need a program that reads .pdf files such as Adobe Acrobat Reader).
Click here to view winners since 1999.
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Cases in the CIT
The U.S. Court of International Trade hears cases involving TAA. To learn about TAA, click on this link to read an EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (You must have an Adobe Acrobat program to view this link) of a course first presented at “What You Need to Know About Trade Adjustment Assistance Cases – From All Sides” sponsored by the U.S. Court of International Trade, the American Bar Association, and the Customs and International Trade Bar Association, in April, 2005.
Additional and more detail information can be obtained at the TAA Coalition web site, which includes a "Primer on TAA petition process," among other informative materials.
Message Concerning Electronic Filing in the USCIT
We
have received comments and concerns about Metadata, and what the risks
are in publishing and sharing electronic documents. The following is an
overview of Metadata, and some of the issues that have been brought to
our attention. If you have any questions about Metadata, we encourage
you to speak with your IT staff.
Ruby Krajick
Systems Manager
U.S. Court of International Trade
1 Federal Plaza
New York, New York 10278
The Metadata Problem
Briefly, Metadata is simply data that describes other data.
Specifically, Metadata is information that remains in an electronic
document, such as the document's author(s), recipients, file
properties, and especially troubling in some situations, the history of
all prior revisions. It exists because of intentional design features
in current computer software. If not monitored properly, Metadata can
disclose information about the document that was not intended to be
transmitted or shared. Although Metadata is most commonly found in
documents created in Microsoft Word (and Microsoft's Excel and
PowerPoint), similar problems can exist with WordPerfect documents and
even PDF files.
PDF (Portable Document Format) is the only format used by the Court's
CM/ECF System. The Clerk's Office is recommending creating PDF files
natively (without scanning), which produces a smaller file and a
crisper image of the document. We believe strongly that the native PDF
documents are the better choice for filing papers with the Court.
In the past, there has been a perception that PDF documents were secure
and could not be edited. This conclusion arose for two reasons. First,
a PDF file was traditionally regarded as a "picture" of a document and
therefore impenetrable. Second, in the past, many computer users had
only the free Adobe Acrobat Reader, which basically permitted a user to
read a PDF file. Only limited edits are possible using Acrobat Reader,
primarily to documents set up as forms.
In recent years, many lawyers (as well as the entire Judiciary) have
upgraded from the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to the full version of
Adobe Acrobat. The newer versions of the full Acrobat program are
designed to make it easier for users to work collaboratively on PDF
documents. The recipient of a PDF document, who has a newer Acrobat
program, can edit the text of the document much as if it were a Word or
WordPerfect file. The recipient also can comment on the document and
send the comments back to the author. The author then can decide which
suggestions to accept and export those comments into the document. The
full version of Adobe Acrobat also has tools that make it easy to
redact portions of the text of a PDF file by "blacking out" provisions
of the document.
The Risks
PDF documents are not necessarily secure if you leave Metadata behind in the document for others to view.
The ability to edit and work collaboratively on PDF documents can
therefore reveal the document’s information to recipients with Adobe
Acrobat. One of the settings in some versions of the full version of
Acrobat, when checked, attaches the Word source file to the Adobe PDF
document. If the Word file contains Metadata, that information will go
along with the PDF file. Another setting allows someone working on the
PDF file to "hide" comments made to the PDF. In either of these
instances, a recipient of the PDF file with the full version of Acrobat
may be able to view hidden information. The point is that if you use
the full Acrobat program to create, edit or send PDF files, it is
important to understand the PDF settings and to check periodically
which settings are activated.
While the normal method used to prohibit unrestricted access to
Metadata is to change the security settings so that the PDF document
cannot be printed or edited without a password, the CM/ECF System will
not accept any document with password encryption enabled.
Suggestions
Regardless of the application used, it is important to understand your
application settings, and to check periodically that you are creating
published documents that are free of any Metadata. Users redacting text
in a PDF document should not use Acrobat tools to "black out" portions
of a document when their intent is that the recipients not see the
redacted information. Recipients with the full version of Acrobat are
able to remove the "black out" and view the redacted text.
The bottom line on this is that everyone needs to understand how
properly to create, edit, and distribute electronic documents, the
Metadata risks involved, the procedures for eliminating unwanted
Metadata, and the steps to secure electronic documents. If you use the
full version of Adobe Acrobat, please familiarize yourself with how to
create a PDF file that is free of Metadata. You also should understand
the features of the programs you use, their conversion and security
settings and check periodically which ones are activated. We urge you
to discuss this subject with your organization's Information Services
staff.