DC Velocity - May 2010

inbound

TCC an exporter’s friend
in need

U.S. exporters that find themselves up against restrictive regulations and unwritten “rules” overseas have a friend in Washington.

The International Trade Administration’s Trade Compliance Center (TCC) stands ready to help them fight foreign trade barriers, says Kevin M. Ellis, the TCC’s compliance staff director. Ellis spoke at the Coalition of New England Companies for Trade (CONECT) Northeast Trade & Transportation Conference in March.

TCC is a “one-stop shop” for exporters, said Ellis. It helps to ensure compliance with trade agreements, organizes resources for exporters that have run up against foreign trade barriers, and manages a trade-barrier complaint “hotline” via its Web site ( www.trade.gov/tcc). TCC also provides texts of trade agreements and offers an “early warning system” for changes in product standards.

When an exporter files a complaint, TCC assigns the case to a team of experts, who examine the evidence, determine whether there has been unfair treatment or a violation of a trade agreement, and verify all case-related information. The next phase involves setting a goal and crafting a strategy and action plan. When it’s time to implement the plan, TCC is ready to go all out, Ellis said. While team members first try to solve the problem using the negotiation and discussion mechanisms in trade agreements, they will also meet with foreign officials and leverage the power of other federal and international agencies if needed, he said. As a last resort, they may refer the case to a World Trade Organization dispute settlement body.

The approach has worked well, Ellis said. He cited cases in which TCC teams convinced foreign governments to comply with trade agreement provisions they had previously ignored, and to revoke licensing rules and technical standards they had been using to keep foreign competition at bay.

Besides the Web site, TCC can be contacted via e-mail at tcc@mail.doc.gov or by phone at (202) 482-1191.

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it’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s a Thin Mint?

In a showing of troop-to-troop solidarity, the Girl Scouts of Nassau County (N.Y.) recently organized an airlift of Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, and Do-Si-Dos to servicemen and women overseas. Thanks to donations collected through the scouts’ Operation Cookie program and transportation provided by DHL, more than 45,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies were delivered to U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Donations allowed the Girl Scouts to send the record number of boxes—containing more than 1 million cookies—to the U.S. troops. In late March, DHL picked up the shipment of treats and delivered them under police escort to DHL’s facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The cookies then winged their way through DHL’s international air-freight system and were delivered to military bases a few days later.

This is the fifth year that DHL has partnered with the Girl Scouts of Nassau County to bring “a taste of home” to the troops. The express carrier has long had an extensive network that includes hard-to-reach locations around the world. DHL Express also donates its services to deliver food and care packages through the Pizzas 4 Patriots and DHL Trees for Troops programs. ;

U. S. AIR FORCE PHOTO BY AIRMAN 1S T CLASS MAT THEW FLYNN

diamonds are not Ray LaHood’s best friend

Memo to those looking to curry favor with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood: Skip the World Series tickets.

LaHood told a transportation and infrastructure conference in Washington in March that he doesn’t like baseball because it is, in his words, “too boring.” LaHood, who said he prefers football and basketball, acknowledged that his dislike of baseball might strike some as unpatriotic.

The DOT secretary hails from Illinois, whose largest city, Chicago, is home to two baseball teams and some of the planet’s most rabid baseball fans. LaHood, however, is from the downstate city of Peoria, which has no professional baseball team. ;