J.O. Alvarez, Inc. BLOG

U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION BORDER SEARCH OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES CONTAINING INFORMATION TRAINING: ASSESSMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS August 20, 2010 PURPOSE In August 2009, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released new U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) directives to enhance and clarify the procedures and processes for… Continue reading »

U.S. borders may soon be opening up to allow more trade with Mexico and for some exporters it can’t happen fast enough. In March of 2009, lawmakers canceled funding for a test program pioneered by the Bush administration that allowed Mexican long-haul trucks into the United states, because of safety and security concerns. But Mexico… Continue reading »

Tariffs on U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico over the past 11 months are weighing on sales, and a coalition of industry advocates and sympathetic Democratic lawmakers are pushing the Obama administration to solve the Mexican truck dispute that caused the trade friction. In a Jan. 29 letter to members of Congress, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif.,… Continue reading »

Participants at a recent conference in Washington blamed Mexico’s failure to achieve above-average economic growth in the past decade on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). This criticism is unfair and unwise. The NAFTA agreement is one of the best examples in recent history of a successful, mainstream, and bipartisan project. According to the… Continue reading »

The decline in surface transportation trade among the United States, Canada and Mexico slowed in November from a year ago compared with comparable figures for October, the Department of Transportation said Thursday. Trade among the North American Free Trade Agreement partners fell 2.9% year-to-year, to $58.9 billion. That compared with October’s 15.5% year-to-year decline, DOT… Continue reading »

This week some 38 or so countries are holding a secret negotiation in Guadalajara, Mexico, on something called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. The title is a bit of a fraud, as it highlights the emotive and prejudicial word counterfeiting, while the agreement is about a wide range of intellectual property enforcement issues, of which counterfeits… Continue reading »

Incoterms 2010 Likely to Take Effect in January 2011 [Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in a Jan. 20 post in International Trade Law News, a blog by ST&R member Doug Jacobson, and is reprinted here with permission.] Frank Reynolds, the U.S. Delegate to the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) Incoterms committee, has provided… Continue reading »

In Laredo, Texas, the local economy’s connection to the vagaries of trade around the world could hardly be more obvious. It is a border town where the Mexican flag is rarely far from sight, and the border checkpoints connecting Laredo to its Mexican neighbor, Nueva Laredo, are the foundation of the town’s prosperity. Laredo is… Continue reading »

http://webbts.bts.gov/press_releases/2010/bts001_10/pdf/bts001_10.pdf

The new infrastructure — including gates, cameras and vehicle scales — aims to hamper the smuggling of drug money and weapons to Mexican cartels. Businesses are protesting the increased wait times. Click here for more details