Shipping Weight

Shipping weight represents the gross weight in kilograms of shipments, including the weight of moisture content, wrappings, crates, boxes, and containers (other than cargo vans and similar substantial outer containers).

Ship’s Manifest

An instrument in writing, signed by the captain of the ship, that lists the individual shipments constituting the ship’s cargo.

Short Supply

Commodities in short supply may be subject to export controls to protect the domestic economy from the excessive drain of scarce materials and to reduce the serious inflationary impact of satisfying foreign demand. Two commodities which the U.S. controls for short supply purposes are crude oil and unprocessed western red cedar.

SIC – See: Standard Industrial Classification

Sight Draft

A draft which is payable upon presentation to the drawee. Compare: Date Draft, Time draft.

Single Carrier

A single carrier is an individual vessel, plane, truck, and rail car, not a steamship line or airline. For overload exports, the Customs Director may accept a single declaration for multiple car shipments moving under a single bill of lading and cleared simultaneously.

SITC – See: Standard International Trade Classification

Societe Anonyme (S.A.)

French expression meaning a corporation.

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

SDRs are international reserve assets, created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and allocated to individual member nations. Within conditions set by the IMF, SDRs can be used by a nation with a deficit in its balance of international payments to settle debts with another nation or with the IMF.

Special 301

The Special 301 statute requires the United States Trade Representative (IJSTR) to review annually the condition of intellectual property protection among U.S. trading partners. Submissions are accepted from industry after which the USTR, weighing all relevant information, makes a determination as to whether a country presents excessive barriers to trade with the United States by virtue of its inadequate protection of intellectual property. If the USTR makes a positive determination, a country may be named to the list of: (a) Priority Foreign Countries (the most egregious), (b)the Priority Watch List, or (c) the Watch List.

Spot Exchange

The purchase or sale of foreign exchange for immediate delivery.

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)

The SIC is the classification standard underlying all establishment-based U.S. economic statistics classified by industry.

Standard Industrial Trade Classification (SITC)

A standard numerical code system developed by the United Nations to classify commodities used in international trade. Compare: Nomenclature of the Customs Cooperation Council, Standard Industrial Classification.

Standards

As defined by the Multilateral Trade Negotiations “Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade” (Standards Code), a standard is a technical specification contained in a document that lays down characteristics of a product such as levels of quality, performance, safety, or dimensions. Standards may include, or deal exclusively with, terminology, symbols, testing and test methods, packaging, marking, or labeling requirements as they apply to a product.

State-Controlled Trading Company

In a country with a state trading monopoly, a trading entity empowered by the country’s government to conduct export business.

State/Industry-Organized, Government Approved

The State/Industry-Organized, Industry Approved (S/IOGA) trade missions are planned and organized by state development agencies, trade associations, chambers of commerce, and other export-oriented groups. To qualify for U.S. government sponsorship, organizers of this type of trade mission must agree to follow International Trade Administration criteria in planning and recruiting the mission. ITA offers guidance and assistance from planning through completion of the mission and coordinates the support of all relevant offices and the assistance of overseas commercial officers in each foreign city on the itinerary. The missions are normally led by a representative of the sponsoring organization. Organizers of S/IOGA missions recruit for the event and cover the expenses of the event incurred by ITA’s overseas post. S/IOGA missions may use the seminar format, the exhibit format, the traditional trade mission format, or a combination, such as a seminar/mission or exhibit/mission.

State Trading Enterprises

STEs are entities established by governments to import, export and/or produce certain products. Examples include: government-operated import/export monopolies and marketing boards or private companies that receive special or exclusive privileges from their governments to engage in trading activities.

Steamship Conference

A group of steamship operators that operate under mutually agreed upon freight rates.

Subsidies

GATT does not directly define subsidies. The U.S. regards a subsidy as a bounty or grant paid for the manufacture, production, or export of an article. Export subsidies are contingent on exports; domestic subsidies are conferred on production without reference to exports. While governments sometimes make outright payments to firms; subsidies usually take a less direct form (R&D support, tax breaks, loans on preferential terms, and provision of raw materials at below-market prices).

Summary Investigation

A 20-day investigation conducted by the International Trade Administration immediately following filing of an antidumping petition to ascertain if the petition contains sufficient information with respect to sales at “less than fair value” and the injury or threat of mateflal injury to a domestic industry caused by the alleged sales at “less than fair value” to warrant the initiation of an antidumping investigation.

Summit Conference

A summit conference is an international meeting at which heads of government are the chief negotiators, major world powers are represented, and the meeting serves substantive rather than ceremonial purposes. The term first came into use in reference to the Geneva Big Four Conference of 1955.

Switch Arrangements

A form of countertrade in which the seller sells on credit and then transfers the credit to a third party.

System for Tracking Export License Applications

STELA is a BXA computer-generated voice unit that interfaces with the BXA databaSe ECAS (Export Control Automated Support System). STELA enables a caller to check on an export license by making a telephone call.

Table of Denial Orders

The TDO is a list of individuals and firms which have been disbarred from shipping or ~eceiV1ng U.S. goods or technology. Firms and individuals on the list may be disbarred with respect to either controlled commodities or general destination (across-the-board) exports.

Tare Weight

The weight of a container and/or packing materials without the weight of the goods it contains. Compare: Gross Weight.

Tariff

A tax assessed by a government in accordance with its tariff schedule on goods as they enter (or leave) a country. May be imposed to protect domestic industries from imported goods andlorto generate revenue. Types include ad valorem, specific, variable, or some combination.

Tariff Anomaly

A tariff anomaly exists when the tariff on raw materials or semi-manufactured goods is higher than the tariff on the finished product.

Tariff Escalation

A situation in which tariffs on manufactured goods are relatively high, tariffs on semi-pro~~5~ goods are moderate, and tariffs on raw materials are nonexistent or very low.

Tariff Quotas

Application of a higher tariff rate to imported goods after a specified quantity of the item has entered the country at a lower prevailing rate.

Tariff Schedule

A comprehensive list of the goods which a country may import and the import duties applicable to each product.

Technical Advisory Committee

The TACs are voluntary groups of industry and government representatives who provide guidance and expertise to Commerce on technical and export control matters, including evaluation of technical issues; worldwide availability, use and production of technology; and licensing procedures related to specific industries. TACs have been set up for: (a) materials, (b) biotechnology, (c) computer systems, (d) electronics (formerly “semiconductors”), (e) sensors (formerly “electronic instrumentation”) (f) materials processing equipment (formerly “automated manufacturing equipment”), (g) military critical technologies, (h) telecommunications equipment, and (I) transportation and related equipment.

Technical Barrier to Trade

According to the Standards Code, a specification which sets forth characteristics or standards a product must meet (such as levels of quality, performance, safety, or dimensions) in order to be imported.

Technical Data

BXA regulations define technical data as “information of any kind that can be used, or adapted for use, in the design, production, manufacture, utilization, or reconstruction of articles or materials. All software is technical data.” Technical data can be either “tangible” or “intangible.” Models, prototypes, blueprints or operating manuals (even if stored on recording media) are examples of tangible technical data. Intangible technical data consists of technical services, such as training, oral advice, information guidance and consulting.

Technology Transfer

This term is used to characterize “the transfer of knowledge generated and developed in one place to another, where it is used to achieve some practical end.” Technology may be transferred in many ways: by giving it away (technical journals, conferences, emigration of technical experts, technical assistance programs); by industrial espionage; or by sale (patents, blueprints, industrial processes, and the activities of multinational corporations).

Through Bill of Lading

A single bill of lading covering both the domestic and international carriage of an export shipment. An air waybill, for instance is essentially a through bill of lading because of lading used for air shipments. Ocean shipments, on the other hand, usually require two separate documents — an inland bill of lading for domestic carriage and an ocean bill of lading for international carriage. Compare: Air Waybill, Inland Bill of Lading, Ocean Bill of Lading.

Time Draft

A draft which matures either a certain number of days after acceptance or a certain number of days after the date of draft.

Trade Act of 1974

Legislation enacted late in 1974 and signed into law in January 1975, granting the President broad authority to enter into international agreements to reduce import barriers. Major purposes were to: (a) stimulate U.S. economic growth and to maintain and enlarge foreign markets for the products of U.S. agriculture, industry, mining and commerce; (b) strengthen economic relations with other countries through open and non-discriminatory trading practices; (c) protect American industry and workers against unfair or injurious import competition; and (d) provide “adjustment assistance” to industries, workers and communities injured or threatened by increased imports. The Act allowed the President to extend tariff preferences to certain imports from developing countries and set conditions under which Most-Favored-Nation Treatment could be extended to non-market economy countries and provided negotiating authority for the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations.