Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Customs and Border Protection will open six Centers of Excellence and Expertise nationally in 2013, as the agency works to bring uniformity to the handling of major product imports.

A customs maneuver called Operation HOPE, organized by the World Customs Organization, recently led to more than 70 major seizures of endangered flora and fauna, including live tortoises, rhino horns, ivory tusks and more...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, law enforcement agencies from five European countries, and the European Police Office...

Like favorable winds for a ship sailing out of harbor, bipartisan optimism billows behind Congress’s drafting of a long-delayed port and inland waterways bill.

India’s economic growth slowed to 5.3 percent in the second quarter, its lowest level in nine years, Coface recently reported in its assessment of the country’s fiscal performance.

The European Union said it plans to finalize a free trade agreement with Canada in the “coming weeks” that could boost annual two-way trade by more than $33 billion.

Europe’s imports and exports are expected to decline in the next six months amid concerns that the region’s economy will contract further, according to Global Port Tracker’s North Europe Trade Outlook.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ board of directors recently voted to elect Michael Lewis, Rhode Island’s transportation director, as president for 2013.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials board of directors today voted to approve Frederick G. “Bud” Wright as executive director.

Commercial trucks crossing the U.S. border into Canada have been given a reprieve: The Canada Border Services Agency won’t begin assessing fines or refusing entries to trucks and drivers not meeting eManifest requirements until May.

The Food and Drug Administration has a daunting task ahead: inspecting food imports to keep the U.S. food supply safe, according to a new report by the congressional General Accountability Office.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard and representatives from the barge and shipping industries held a press conference in St. Louis on Nov. 16 to discuss government-industry cooperation in managing the Mississippi River...

The World Trade Organization on Nov. 16 adopted panel and appellate body reports in the United States' dispute with China about the imposition of duties on U.S. exports of grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel, according to Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade Representative.

Changes in European Union trade rules could cause Caribbean countries to lose up to 10 million euros by the end of the decade from falling rum revenues, reported the Overseas Development Institute, a UK think tank on international development issues.

Nicaragua was recently approved for a $39.2 million loan by the Inter-American Development Bank to improve the efficiency and safety of its transportation system.

The IEC System of Conformity Assessment Schemes for Electrotechnical Equipment and Components, which provides conformity testing and certification for the safety and performance of electronic products...

Growth in Asia will drive the world economy and prompt an acceleration of global trade growth in the decade ahead, according to a new report from HSBC.

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The competition among ports in the U.S., Canada and Mexico for Asian cargo is not a zero-sum game, but rather a matter of each port capturing market share based on what it does best.

Eighty percent of logistics providers and freight forwarders reported slight business expansion in the last two years, and more than 75 percent expect that growth to continue into 2013...

With the U.S. and Europe struggling to escape recession, and China’s stellar economy displaying signs of exhaustion, it’s tough to find a region of the world that’s thriving on the logistics front. But here’s a hint: Follow the money — the oil money, that is.

U.S. poultry exports in the first three quarters of 2012 were valued at $4 billion, increasing 14 percent from the same period in 2011 and setting a new year-on-year record, according to data from the Foreign Agricultural Service...

The U.S. House of Representatives recently approved legislation to ensure the U.S. will not participate in a European Union plan to tax aircraft operators and air carriers for emissions when flying into or out of the EU.

India will be the fastest growing market for U.S. exports in the future, according to a report recently released by HSBC Commercial Banking.

When the George W. Bush administration signed the Central America Free Trade Agreement in 2004, skeptics were assured the new pact would expand trade and foreign direct investment between the U.S. and six of the least industrialized countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Import cargo volume at the nation’s major retail container ports is expected to increase 5.9 percent, at 1.37 million 20-equivalent units, in November...

Rijkswaterstaat, the executive arm of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, recently signed a “design, build, finance, maintain” contract with Royal Boskalis Westminster, VolkerWessels, Hochtief and DIF...

With a pro-free trade Congress and two major pacts on the horizon, Obama can get aggressive in opening up markets for U.S. importers and exporters.

Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department today reported that the region’s volume of exports of goods in September increased 13.6 percent from September 2011.

The European Commission has proposed suspending the inclusion of international aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme...

The National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association and USA Poultry & Egg Export Council and more than 500 other organizations under the Coalition for U.S.-Russia Trade recently called on Congress to quickly approve the enactment of permanent normal trade relations with Russia.

The Japanese economy shrank 0.9 percent in the July-September quarter from the preceding quarter, or at an annualized pace of 3.5 percent, in real terms, the Cabinet Office said in a preliminary report on Monday.

Canada’s unionized labor force is undergoing demographic changes and a generational shift in priorities that are changing long-established ways that transportation and waterfront employers address contract negotiations and work rules.

The appointment of a new Customs and Border Protection commissioner might be still be a year off despite President Obama’s re-election.

For the fifth straight election cycle, voters got onboard with issuing bonds or raising taxes to increase road and bridge construction, as local and state government learn to rely less on federal dollars.