Transport, Trade and Regulation News

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.

Following the release of guidelines for ship and cargo contingencies plans from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a customs expert has shared his insight into what to do in the event of a serious labor disruption.

The P3 was a traditional vessel-sharing agreement, albeit a very large one, but for one distinct element that made it unprecedented in the annals of container shipping: its joint operations center.

Container lines considering launching major highly structured vessel-sharing agreements in Chinese trade lanes would be wise to consider factors other than just market share, said an attorney familiar with Chinese transportation policy.

NAPLES, Fla. — Truck driver hours of service rules could evolve to become more flexible, but only following concrete safety gains and reduced fatalities on U.S. highways, a federal regulator told trucking and logistics executives at the SMC3 Connections 2014 conference here.

Forwarders shipping goods via Shanghai are trying to decipher China Customs’ 24-Hour Advance Manifest (CCAM) regulations that either were implemented on June 3, will be implemented on June 28 or July 1, or will be strictly enforced from October 1, depending on the source.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is looking whether a program designed to alleviate congestion by encouraging shippers to move cargo during nontraditional hours at Los Angeles-Long Beach isn’t delivering better service in exchange for higher fees.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero said that although more carriers are forging larger alliances via vessel-sharing agreements, there isn’t an immediate need to amend the law commissioners use to judge whether the pacts are anti-competitive.

A West Coast port strike by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union would have a multibillion-dollar impact on a still-shaky U.S. economy, according to a study commissioned by retailers and manufacturers.

The growth of U.S. exports of containerized distillers dried grains to China has fallen in the last five months.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued guidelines for ship and cargo contingency plans ahead of a possible West Coast trade disruption arising from the expiration of the longshore labor union contract.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero today said the agency is reaching out to container lines for specifics on their planned congestion surcharges ahead of potential work stoppages at U.S. West Coast ports.

WASHINGTON — U.S. manufacturers could lose a powerful resource that helps some of their foreign customers get loan guarantees they couldn’t secure in the private sector, which backers say allows many American exporters to stay globally competitive.