According to Consumer Reports, Washington state has joined Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota and Wisconsin in banning Bisphenol A in certain products. Under Washington's law, plastic containers made with BPA that are designed to hold food or beverages for children under three may not be manufactured, sold, or distributed in the state, effective July 1, 2011. Effective July 1, 2012, the ban will extend to plastic sports bottles. (Notice, posted 03/22/10, available at http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2010/03/washington-bans-bpa-bisphenol-a.html)

The Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued a final rule, effective March 8, 2010, amending the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations and the Iranian Transactions Regulations to provide a general license authorizing the exportation of certain services and software incident to the exchange of personal communications over the Internet.

The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a final rule, effective February 22, 2010, which revises the controls on certain agents identified in Export Control Classification Number 1C360 to reflect changes to the Plant Protection and Quarantine Programs list; and removes certain anti-terrorism (AT) license requirements under ECCN 1E998.

In January 2010, the Bureau of Industry and Security updated its Freight Forwarder Guidance, which included updated information on the responsibilities of the forwarding community, routed and non-routed export transactions, the Automated Export System; and risk mitigation and public/private partnerships.

The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a final rule, effective February 9, 2010, which revises License Exception GOV¹ under the Export Administration Regulations to provide a new authorization for exports and reexports of certain commodities when they are intended for use on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Court of International Tradehasruled against further proceedingson an Appeal Court'sruling that invalidateda CIT decision thatUPS Customhouse Brokerage violated 19 USC 1641 by not exercising responsible supervision and control.The CAFC had ruled thatCustoms was required toconsider all 10 factors listed in 19 CFR 111.1 as a prerequisite. The CIT also ruled that a discretionary remand to Customs would be inappropriate. (U.S. v. UPS Customshouse Brokerage, Inc., Slip Op. 10-11, dated 01/28/10, available at http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/slip_op/Slip_op10/Slip%20Op%2010-11.pdf)

The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a final rule, effective January 15, 2010, which amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to add an entity and identify its respective eligible items for export and reexport and transfer (in-country) under Authorization Validated End-User (VEU) in China.

The World Customs Organization Secretary General, in a speech before the Customs Union Group of the EU Council on January 7, 2010, stated that the WCO's priorities for 2010 would include: (1) effective implementation of risk management techniques, (2) the establishment of a strong Customs-business partnership, (3) support for the "Globally Networked Customs" initiative, (4) the strengthening of border management and (5) the implementation of a Single Window system (by adopting, among other things, the WCO Data Model). (Report, dated 01/07/10, available at http://www.wcoomd.org/speeches/?v=1&lid=1&cid=2&id=194)

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has issued a final rule, effective December 23, 2009, which amends certain requirements in the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) that apply to Albania and Croatia due to their accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on April 1, 2009.

CBP has posted a summary of changes to the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) that is effective December 15, 2009. Appendix F - License and License Exemption Type Codes - was revised to include the following ECCN changes: C35 - add 1D008 and C38 - delete 4D003. The AES Downtime Guidelines were also updated. (Changes, posted 12/18/09, available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/automated/aes/tech_docs/aestir/june04_intro/june04_summary_of_chngs.ctt/june04_summary_of_chngs.doc)