Transport, Trade and Regulation News

The Highway Trust Fund is dangerously close to insolvency, leaving Congress with three options on how to prevent the main driver of federal surface infrastructure funding from reaching a shortfall, a budget analyst told Congress on Tuesday morning.

The European Union and Georgia have successfully concluded negotiations for a deep and comprehensive free trade area...

Hong Kong Customs has seized more than 1,148 ivory tusks, valued at HK$17.46 million (about US$2.23 million), that were being smuggled through...

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has asked Transport Canada to review its rules regarding the securement of equipment and trains left unattended...

The U.S. House Committee on Ways & Means has introduced legislation to renew the Generalized System of Preferences through September 2015...

Octavio Maese-Cordero, owner of a trucking and shipping company in El Paso, Texas, has been sentenced to serve 18 months in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud...

Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Relations has announced that the missile systems that Panama seized from a North Korea-flag ship were “obsolete defensive weapons” that Cuba was sending...

Barely three months after being tapped by President Obama, new FMC Chairman Mario Cordero is drawing the ire of many in the industry over his push to overhaul regulations for forwarders and non-vessel-operating common carriers.

A Missouri company has pled guilty in federal court to importing thousands of lamps from China bearing counterfeit certification labels.

The European Union will reopen its market to Myanmar on July 19 under the so-called “Everything But Arms” preferential trade regime...

If California is the U.S. leader when it comes to environmental regulation, then Oregon could be the state to keep an eye on in terms of where transportation infrastructure funding is headed.

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation that would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Transportation to issue a new report on rural transportation issues...

Australia’s international merchandise imports in June were A$18.4 billion (about $17.0 billion), falling 8 percent from $18.5 billion in May, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The U.S. economic recovery has not brought as much container volume growth as expected, according to an Asian transportation report by Jeffries, a global investment banking firm.

Pilot Flying J has reached a settlement with eight trucking firms that filed federal lawsuits against the truck stop operator.

The Association of Independent Property Brokers & Agents has filed a federal lawsuit against the $75,000 bond provision of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, commonly referred to as MAP-21.

How will the deadline train derailment in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, affect the transportation of crude oil by rail. Will public outcry result in new rail safety regulations in Canada or the U.S.?

Panama has detained a North Korean-flagged ship coming from Cuba as it approached the Panama Canal with undeclared weapons, according to the nation’s President Ricardo Martinelli, Reuters reports.

China’s gross domestic product growth slowed in the second quarter of 2013 to 7.5 percent year-over-year, making it the ninth quarter in the last 10 quarters that China’s growth has slackened, Reuters reports.

In June, India’s exports were valued at $23.8 billion, falling 4.6 percent from $24.9 billion in June 2012; imports were valued at $36.0 billion, dropping 0.4 percent from June 2012’s $36.2 billion, according to the country’s Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

After a strong start in the first part of this decade, the slowdown in export growth means the U.S. will not meet President Obama's goal of doubling exports by 2015 from 2009 levels.

The next secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security will likely focus on immigration issues to the detriment of Customs and Border Protection’s push to move goods and materials faster and more efficiently through ports of entry, international trade attorney Susan Kohn Ross said on Monday.

Restructuring of the Chinese economy will force transportation companies and many manufacturers in southern China and Hong Kong to rethink their long-term strategies, according to shipper representatives.

The amount of freight carried by the for-hire transportation industry in May rose 1.2 percent from the previous month and 2.7 percent from May 2012...

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano is leaving the role after more than four years as a Cabinet member.

Kenya’s security agencies have seized two more containers full of ivory, after authorities vowed to increase surveillance at all entry points to the East African nation, Shanghai Daily reports.

Russia is planning to introduce temporary restrictions on dairy, meat and seafood imports from Greece, starting July 15, according to the Russian Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Inspection Service...

CSX has won an appeal against the Alabama Department of Revenue regarding the agency’s imposition of a sales and use tax on diesel fuel purchased by rail carriers, Jacksonville Business Journal reports.

Kunio Mikuriya, secretary general of the World Customs Organization; Raymond Benjamin, secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization; and Koji Sekimizu, secretary general of the International Maritime Organization, have discussed increasing collaboration.

India’s market has opened to Canadian eastern-spruce products.

The Michigan Department of Transportation’s draft Michigan Freight Plan, a supplement to the 2035 MI Transportation Plan, is available for public review through Aug. 7, via the State Long Range Plan Web site.

The European Union has launched its first formal trade dispute with Russia at the World Trade Organization.

The Canadian government will no longer impose tariffs on imported baby clothes and selected sports equipment after receiving complaints from Canadian consumers about the high cost of consumer goods in Canada...

The Oregon State Legislature has passed legislation to establish a road usage charge system for transportation funding, which is expected to be signed by Oregon’s Gov. John Kitzhaber in “coming days.”

Gerardo Chavez, 42, the former president of the San Diego Customs Broker Association, has been sentenced to 37 months in federal prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar commercial fraud scheme to evade paying duties on goods imported into the U.S.

Import volume at major U.S. retail container ports is expected to inch up a “modest” 1.1 percent year-over-year in July, although “significant” increases are forecasted to follow this year’s sluggish summer...

Fears are growing that Asia’s biggest international cargo airport could be subject to major congestion starting July 15 when new security regulations are introduced.

A train disaster in Quebec on July 6 is prompting debate about the safety of shipping crude oil by rail or pipelines....

The European Union today outlined plans to ease customs formalities for ships transporting goods between its 28 member states.

Germany’s exports in May fell at the steepest rate since December 2009, while the nation’s monthly imports rose “far more than expected,” Reuters reports.