International Trade: Rules of Origin

[Excerpt] Determining the country of origin of a product is important for properly assessing tariffs, enforcing trade remedies (such as anti-dumping and countervailing duties) or quantitative restrictions (tariff quotas), and statistical purposes. Other commercial trade policies are also linked with origin determinations, such as country of origin labeling and government procurement regulations. Rules of origin (ROO), used to determine the country of origin of merchandise entering the U.S. market, can be very simple, noncontroversial tools of international trade as long as all of the parts of a product are manufactured and assembled primarily in one country. However, when a finished product’s component parts originate in many countries, as is often the case in today’s global trading environment, determining origin can be a very complex, sometimes subjective, and time-consuming process. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the agency responsible for determining country of origin using various ROO schemes. Non-preferential rules of origin are used to determine the origin of goods imported from countries with which the United States has most-favored-nation (MFN) status. They are the principal regulatory tools for accurate assessment of tariffs on imports, addressing country of origin labeling issues, qualifying goods for government procurement, and enforcing trade remedy actions and trade sanctions. Preferential rules are used to determine the eligibility of imported goods from certain U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) partners and certain developing country beneficiaries to receive duty-free or reduced tariff benefits under bilateral or regional FTAs, trade preference programs (such as the Generalized System of Preferences), and other special import programs. Preferential rules of origin are specific to each FTA, which means that they vary from agreement to agreement and preference to preference. This report deals with ROO in three parts. First, we describe in more detail the reasons that country of origin rules are important and briefly describe U.S. laws and methods that provide direction in making these determinations. Second, we discuss briefly some of the more controversial issues involving rules of origin, including the apparently subjective nature of some CBP origin determinations, and the effects of the global manufacturing process on ROO. Third, we conclude with some alternatives and options that Congress could consider that might assist in simplifying the process. This report will be updated as events warrant

International Trade: Rules of Origin

[Excerpt] Recent trade policy issues have pointed to the framework used by the United States and other countries to regulate imports, including the process of determining country of origin using “rules of origin” (ROO). Such rules can be very simple, noncontroversial tools of international trade as long as all of the parts of a product are manufactured and assembled primarily in one country. However, when a finished product’s component parts originate in many countries—as is often the case in today’s global trading environment—determining origin can be a very complex, sometimes subjective, and time-consuming process. This report first provides a general overview of the U.S. ROO system, including its implementation as it applies to manufactured imports. Second, advantages and disadvantages of the ROO schemes as implemented by the United States are also discussed. Third, the report illustrates ways in which the application of the rules of origin system can lead to country of origin determinations that could be inconsistent with U.S. policy objectives or goals, or encourage businesses to circumvent them. The report concludes with some options that Congress could consider in order to improve the ROO process

Trade Preferences: Economic Issues and Policy Options

[Excerpt] Since 1974, Congress has created multiple trade preference programs designed to foster economic growth, reform, and development in less developed countries. These programs give temporary, non-reciprocal, duty-free U.S. market access to select exports of eligible countries. Congress conducts regular oversight of these programs, repeatedly revising and extending them. Two major issues face the 111th Congress: (1) the expiration of two preference programs by December 31, 2010; and (2) possible legislative action on broader reform of the preference programs based on comprehensive reviews in hearings held in both the House and the Senate earlier in this Congress. This report discusses the major U.S. trade preference programs, their possible economic effects, stakeholder interests, and legislative options

Quantitative Analysis of Hedgehog Gradient Formation Using an Inducible Expression System: a Dissertation

The Hedgehog (Hh) family of proteins are secreted growth factors that play an essential role in the embryonic development of all organisms and the main components in the pathway are conserved from insects to humans. These proteins affect patterning and morphogenesis of multiple tissues. Therefore, mutations in the Hh pathway can result in a wide range of developmental defects and oncogenic diseases. Because the main components in the pathway are conserved from insects to humans, Drosophilahas been shown to provide a genetically tractable system to gain insight into the processes that Hh is involved in. In this study, the roles of Hh cholesterol modification and endocytosis during gradient fonnation are explored in the Drosophila larval wing imaginal disc. To exclude the possibility of looking at a redistribution of preexisting Hh instead of Hh movement, a spatially and temporally regulated system has been developed to induce Hh expression. Functional Hh-GFP with and without the cholesterol-modification was expressed in a wild-type or shi-tslendocytosis mutant background. The Gal80 system was used to temporally express (pulse) the Hh-GFP transgenes to look at the rate of Hh gradient formation over time and determine whether this process was affected by cholesterol modification and/or endocytosis. Hh with and without cholesterol were both largely detected in punctate structures and the spreading of the different forms of Hh was quantified by measuring distances of these particles from the expressing cells. Hh without cholesterol showed a greater range of distribution, but a lower percentage of particles near the source. Loss of endocytosis blocked formation of intracellular Hh particles, but did not dramatically alter its movement to target cells. Staining for Hh, its receptor Ptc and cortical actin revealed that these punctate structures could be classified into four types of Hh containing particles: cytoplasmic with and without Ptc, and cell surface with and without Ptc. Cholesterol is specifically required for the formation of cytoplasmic particles lacking Ptc. While previous studies have shown discrepancies in the localization of Hh following a block in endocytosis, Hh with and without cholesterol is detected at both apical and basolateral surfaces, but not at basal surfaces. In the absence of cholesterol and endocytosis, Hh particles can be observed in the extracellular space. Through three-dimensional reconstruction and quantitative analysis, this study concludes that the cholesterol modification is required to restrict Hh movement. In addition, the cholesterol modification promotes Ptc-independent internalization. This study also observes that Dynamin-dependent endocytosis is necessary for internalization but does not play an essential role in Hh distribution. The data in this thesis supports the model in which Hh movement occurs via planar diffusion

Georgia Library Association - Coastal Georgia Library Collaborative

The Coastal Georgia Library Collaborative celebrated the end of a successful year with a Holiday Hoopla at the Learning Commons on the Armstrong campus of Georgia Southern University. Brenda Poku became our chair and Nikki Cannon-Rech was selected as the vice-chair

LingitX Haa Sateeyi, We Who Are Tlingit: Contemporary Tlingit Identity And The Ancestral Relationship To The Landscape

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2008Divergent views on the Tlingit ancestral relationship to the landscape of Southeast Alaska often leads to conflicts between Western-orientated government agencies, public entities, and the Tlingit people themselves. To better understand this subject, I collected nine personal narratives from research participants from within the Tlingit nation. The narratives provide insight into the dynamics at the intersection of conflicting worldviews, and the role this plays in shaping contemporary Tlingit identity. The results of exploring these diverging worldviews has illuminated three factors influencing contemporary Tlingit identity: the loss and struggle with maintaining the Lingit language, implementation of subsistence regulations and resultant conflicts, and diminishment of the ceremony called a koo.eex' (a memorial party). In addition, within the Tlingit worldviews there are oral histories, traditional values, and concepts such as balance, respect, and at.oow, which define ancestral relationships and identity. These findings also reveal that the means of imparting cultural knowledge and worldviews have changed. The narratives are organized into themes reflecting common factors: Residing in the ancestral landscape, Lingit language and thinking, the Tlingit artist and the ancestral relationship to the landscape, and contemporary Tlingit identity. The results demonstrate the significance of identity markers, such as the Lingit language, as a means for healing social trauma. Moreover, the lives of the Tlingit artists illustrate that maintaining an ancestral relationship utilizes both traditional and contemporary methods. In addition, the narratives provide documentation concerning the changes in a subsistence lifestyle that affect the social lives of the Tlingit in contemporary society

A comparison of silent reading and listening through written recall and multiple choice type tests; grades 6 and 7.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

New dispatching paradigm in power systems including EV charging stations and dispersed generation: A real test case

Electric Vehicles (EVs) are becoming one of the main answers to the decarbonization of the transport sector and Renewable Energy Sources (RES) to the decarbonization of the electricity production sector. Nevertheless, their impact on the electric grids cannot be neglected. New paradigms for the management of the grids where they are connected, which are typically distribution grids in Medium Voltage (MV) and Low Voltage (LV), are necessary. A reform of dispatching rules, including the management of distribution grids and the resources there connected, is in progress in Europe. In this paper, a new paradigm linked to the design of reform is proposed and then tested, in reference to a real distribution grid, operated by the main Italian Distribution System Operator (DSO), e-distribuzione. First, in reference to suitable future scenarios of spread of RES-based power plants and EVs charging stations (EVCS), using Power Flow (PF) models, a check of the operation of the distribution grid, in reference to the usual rules of management, is made. Second, a new dispatching model, involving DSO and the resources connected to its grids, is tested, using an Optimal Power Flow (OPF) algorithm. Results show that the new paradigm of dispatching can effectively be useful for preventing some operation problems of the distribution grids

Evolution of the Petal and Stamen Developmental Programs: Evidence from Comparative Studies of the Basal Angiosperms

Our recently acquired understanding of the ABC program, which controls floral organ identity in model plant species such as Arabidopsis thaliana and Antirrhinum majus, has provided a new set of characters with which to evaluate floral evolution. What is still lacking, however, is a clear assessment of the actual degree of conservation of this genetic program across the angiosperms. To this end, we have begun to investigate the evolution of members of the B class gene lineages, which are known to control petal and stamen identity in the higher eudicots, and to analyze their expression patterns in selected species from the lower eudicots and basal angiosperms. The B class genes comprise the homologues of the A. thaliana genes APETALA3 (AP3) and PISTILLATA (PI), which are closely related paralogues encoding MADS box-containing DNA-binding proteins. This study has uncovered many examples of gene duplication and divergence in both the AP3 and PI lineages as well as complex and variable patterns of gene expression. These findings indicate that although some aspects of the ABC program are conserved, others display a high degree of plasticity and may not have become fixed until later in angiosperm evolution.Organismic and Evolutionary Biolog