Transport, Trade and Regulation News

President Obama’s recent tapping of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx as Department of Transportation secretary sparked speculation on the political future of the young Democratic rising star and what the pick means for the administration’s high-speed rail agenda.

Food importers might want to brace themselves: They need to get ready to plow through thousands of pages of new regulations, help foreign suppliers prepare facilities and operations for new rules, make sure they aren’t legally responsible for mistakes made by foreign suppliers and perhaps open their wallets for steep user fees.

The Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry has scaled back its export target for fiscal year 2013-14 from an original estimate of $500 billion to $325 billion.

After handwringing, a major lobbying effort and consternation on the Hill, Congress passed $55 million in new funds to allow U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors to stay on the job. And Southern California’s Port Hueneme got one of the rare budget reprieves that allowed the produce and auto port to continue normal operations.

The International Maritime Organization is seeking public input on administrative burdens that may result from compliance with IMO instruments.

The Government Accountability Office said a flawed pilot test of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential biometric readers raises questions about TWIC’s “premise and effectiveness in enhancing security.”

The U.S. Senate is poised to pass the first Water Resources Development Act since 2007 — possibly as soon as this week — paving the way for faster permitting of projects and full use of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

Canada is adopting “strict” environmental standards to reduce emissions from ships navigating in Canadian waters...

The U.S. has requested consultations with Bahrain under the labor chapter of the U.S.-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement...

Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo of Brazil has been recommended for the role of director-general of the World Trade Organization.

In seasonally adjusted terms, Australia had a goods and services trade surplus of A$307 million (about US$312.5 million) in March, a turnaround of $425.5 million on the deficit in February...

Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean is set to pick up from 3 percent in 2012 to 3.5 percent in 2013...

U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., today reintroduced legislation designed to keep bigger, heavier trucks off of all highways.

John V. Keenan, former chief operating officer at Horizon Lines, has been advised by the Justice Department that he has been cleared of antitrust violations in the Jones Act domestic shipping market.

President Barack Obama today said he will nominate Michael Froman to serve as U.S. Trade Representative.

The U.K. said it expects to hire banks to advise on an initial public offering for Royal Mail Group, the 363-year-old state postal company, by the end of May.

Legislation to classify port drayage owner-operators as company employees has stalled in the New Jersey General Assembly.

Anthony Foxx, mayor of Charlotte, N.C., has been selected by President Barack Obama to be the new head of the Department of Transportation, NBC News reports.

U.S. Congress has passed a bill that will halt air traffic controllers from being furloughed as part of budget cuts related to sequestration.

The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America has applauded the reintroduction of the Affordable Footwear Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Shipper frustration mounts over high costs and lengthy delays tied to random U.S. Customs inspections.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration has removed specific fee amounts from TWIC regulations.

A top Corps of Engineers official said spending more from the Harbor Maintenance Tax Fund without a corresponding increase in the agency’s total budget would require the corps to divert money funding from other projects.

Port infrastructure funding took center stage this month in plans to deepen the harbors of Charleston and Savannah.

Freight transportation leaders' testimony at a newly formed House panel suggests the federal government is moving forward on a national freight infrastructure strategy, even if it lacks the will to fully implement it.

Tens of thousands of Transportation Worker Identification Credentials issued in 2008 and 2009 are hitting their five-year expirations, creating a surge in renewals and complaints about delays.

Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department announced on April 23 that it has banned the import of poultry and poultry products, including poultry eggs, from Lower Saxony, Germany, with immediate effect for the protection of Hong Kong's public and animal health.

Shrinking new export orders were a prime reason for slowing manufacturing growth in China in April, according to preliminary data from HSBC.

Former Horizon Lines CEO Chuck Raymond has been cleared in the Justice Department’s investigation of antitrust violations in the Jones Act domestic shipping market.

On behalf of the U.S. and Nigeria, Thomas S. Winkowski, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s acting commissioner, and Abdullahi Dikko Inde, Nigeria’s customs service comptroller...

Exports of wood pellets from North America to Europe reached a record 3.2 million tons in 2012, an increase of more than 60 percent year-over-year, with U.S. export volumes more than doubling...

Stern warnings were given customs brokers to make participation in CBP's Automated Commercial Environment a priority when brokers and forwarders met in Rancho Mirage, Calif., on April 10.

What separates a regulation from a commercial contract? Is a municipal port a regulatory agency or a commercial enterprise? And does a Supreme Court precedent set deep in trucking’s regulatory past still hold in this highly deregulated era?

The U.S. Department of Transportation has been authorized to award $474 million for the fifth round of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER Discretionary Grants.

Canadian police and intelligence agencies have thwarted a plot to carry out an al-Qaeda-supported terrorist attack on a passenger train between Toronto and New York City...

U.S. trucking groups have lost an appeals court challenge to a federal pilot program that allows Mexican truck drivers to cross the border and deliver goods in the U.S., Bloomberg reports.

The International Chamber of Shipping and the International Transport Workers’ Federation have made a joint submission to the International Maritime Organization expressing concern about...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has opened three new Centers of Excellence and Expertise, featuring base metals in Chicago; industrial and manufacturing materials in Buffalo, N.Y.; and machinery in Laredo, Texas.