Transport, Trade and Regulation News

The U.S. government will study vehicle-to-vehicle communications technology that could form the backbone of future systems aimed at improving passenger car and truck safety.

A statutory review of Canada Transportation Act dovetails with the country’s recent success in negotiating free trade agreements with the European Union and South Korea, Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt told port officials.

Nine straight weeks of steady declines in pricing of low-sulfur bunker fuel have brought the price per metric ton down to the lowest levels in more than three years.

The U.S. Maritime Administration’s latest push to promote coastal and inland waterway container services comes despite signs that such efforts are either a long shot or destined to fail.

U.S. poultry exporters are facing stricter inspections of their products by Russian authorities.

Japan has decided not to extend punitive tariffs imposed on some products imported from the United States in retaliation for a U.S. anti-dumping trade law known as the Byrd amendment.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission cleared the planned merger between Hapag-Lloyd and Compania Sud Americana de Vapores, which will create the world’s fourth-largest ocean container line.

Some U.S. states aren’t waiting for federal rules but are increasing inspection and enforcement actions related to temperature-controlled transport on their own.

Applicants for Transportation Security Identification Credential cards now can have them mailed directly to their homes or other locations instead of having to make a second trip to pick up the cards at a TWIC enrollment center.

More gloom has darkened the outlook for the export of U.S. distiller dried grains now that China is requiring all shipments to have a certification showing the feed ingredient doesn’t include an unapproved genetically modified strain.

China’s factory output and total new orders in July rose to their highest levels since March last year, improving the operating conditions of mainland manufacturers and supporting carrier predictions of third quarter container volume increases in the seasonal build up to Christmas.

Despite a loss at the World Trade Organization last fall, China isn’t prepared to give in on a dispute over U.S. poultry that has exposed U.S. producers to steep anti-dumping and countervailing duties in what was once their largest overseas market.

India’s refusal to give in on protecting its food subsidy program spelled the end of a World Trade Organization pact aimed at improving global trade facilitation.

U.S. federal dollars to states for highway construction will keep flowing through May now that Congress approved a bill just hours before the main engine of such funding would have expired.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House and Senate leaders have less than a day to work out their differences in seeking a short-term patch for the main engine of federal highway construction.

After five years leading a broad and often controversial effort to reshape federal truck safety regulation, Anne S. Ferro is leaving the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is seeking authority to use its website instead of the Federal Register to provide public notice when it revokes or suspends the licenses of ocean transportation intermediaries.

Six U.S. truck drivers have filed a class action suit accusing the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration of unlawfully disseminating reports of driver safety records to potential employers.

The U.S. Senate will vote this week on a House bill that would pump $10.9 billion into the dwindling Highway Trust Fund, keeping funding for road and bridge projects flowing to states until next May.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Trucking Associations is urging the U.S. Senate to pass a shorter “short-term patch” to the Highway Trust Fund than that approved by the House of Representatives earlier this month and then quickly move to finding a long-term funding solution.

Two Federal Maritime Commission members hailed U.S. dredging legislation and Seattle-Tacoma port cooperation as “significant” steps to help U.S. ports compete with Canadian and Mexican gateways for shipments to U.S. points.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx won’t be celebrating if a $10.9 billion injection for the Highway Trust Fund approved by the House last week makes it through the Senate.

The U.S. government “could add meaningful costs and delays to an already overburdened U.S. transportation network” if FedEx and other carriers are forced to stringently examine or refuse packages on the grounds they may contain illegal goods, a Wall Street analyst warns.

FedEx officials said today the company will fight federal drug trafficking charges linked to the distribution of prescription medicines illegally sold through Internet pharmacies and defended their efforts to prevent FedEx distribution networks being co-opted for illegal purposes.

Trucking interests in Southern California were urged this week to lobby for a delay in the inclusion of transportation fuels under the state’s cap and trade law...

An arbitration hearing is set to begin Monday in Miami on a contractor’s claim for $180 million in cost overruns for expansion of the Panama Canal.

States are being urged to review their permitting processes for oversized truck shipments following an accident last year that led to an interstate bridge collapse.

FedEx, TNT Express and the U.K.’s Royal Mail are being investigated by French regulators over alleged anti-competitive behavior in the country’s parcel delivery market.

Hong Kong-listed shipping line OOCL and Dubai-based Etihad Airways have not yet been officially informed of a Bangladesh high court ruling that accuses them of evading taxes and money laundering...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Congress is winding up to punt on the challenge of finding a long-term solution to fund highways, bridges and roads...

The Alabama State Port Authority, which had proposed widening a five-mile segment of its ship channel at Mobile, has asked the Army Corps of Engineers to expand its environmental study to cover possible deepening and widening of the entire 36-mile channel.

After seven years of tough negotiations, Tokyo and Canberra signed a free trade agreement on July 8.

A new program by U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s integrates its two largest trusted trader programs — Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and Importer Self Assessment — and includes additional perks meant to offer tangible benefits in return for the effort that importers put in to participate.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has updated its guidelines for ship and cargo contingency plans in the event of any West Coast port disruption arising from longshore labor union contract negotiations.

Forwarders remain unimpressed with new European Union air cargo screening regulations that have been in effect for a week, although no major disruptions have been reported.

A decade into CAFTA-DR, the labor rights issue continues to cast a dark shadow over foreign-owned, low-wage manufacturing plants, especially in Guatemala.

Nicaragua has always occupied a special place among CAFTA member states.

A decade after its signing, and five years after full implementation, the Central America Free Trade Agreement may not have transformed Central America into the powerhouse of textile and apparel trade forecast by some optimists, but it has facilitated significant growth in that sector of the region’s economy, along with diversification into other sectors.

Foreign trade zones in the U.S. are enjoying a boom, partly because shippers are increasingly using the zones for exports, and even for distribution of retail products without any domestic components.

Forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers will learn by the end of the year just how far the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has mitigated many of their concerns with a proposed overhaul of ocean transportation intermediary rules.