Applicants seeking to import denatured ethyl alcohol (DEA) into India must now provide additional documents about their product, the Director General of Foreign Trade announced in a March 16 notice. The information includes the past five years of imports and usage pattern of the DEA, quantity available at the plant site by volume and weight, complete step-wise production process, approved installed capacity of the finished products at the plant site, and a valid environmental clearance for each of the products being manufactured at the plant site. The notice said that the new information requirements will expedite the process for import authorization.
India's Director General of Foreign Trade will allow The Plastic Export Promotion Council to authorize Certificates of Origin (Non-Preferential), the agency announced in a March 17 trade notice.
India set a Dec. 31 deadline for filing claims under Rebate of State Levies. That deadline applies to applications containing shipping bills with Let Export Order dates before Oct. 1, 2017, the Director General of Foreign Trade announced in a March 17 trade notice.
Chinese regulators are considering a new tax on light-cycle oil imports, a low-quality petroleum input that's blended into diesel and fuel oil, Bloomberg reported March 17. The Chinese government asked for feedback from energy companies on a draft plan and could be ready to implement the tax as soon as the first half of 2021, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. Currently, LCO imports are exempt from China's fuel consumption tax. Demand for LCO imports skyrocketed in 2020 as China ramped up infrastructure projects to stimulate its COVID-ravaged economy, bringing most of the LCO in from South Korea, the report said.
Australia this week launched a series of online export tools that it said will help Australian exporters better access foreign markets, a March 17 news release said. The tools provide exporters with information on the “market potential” for their products and “opportunities and challenges in your chosen market,” said Dianne Tipping, the chair of the Export Council of Australia. The country said the tools will give agricultural exporters “insights on top-performing markets to inform their trade and diversification strategies.”
Due to recent detection of cases in which freight forwarders or declaring agents declared and paid lower values on Goods & Services Tax amounts, without the importers being aware of it, Singapore Customs is encouraging all traders to sign up for the Trader Notification Service, a March 15 notice said. The notification service provides traders with updates on the permit number, name of declaring agent and “permit approval date when a permit with the trader's Unique Entity Number ... is approved, cancelled or amended.” Recent developments indicate that declaring agents billed their clients with falsified documents showing the higher correct GST rates, but had submitted import permits to regulators with the lower rates, pocketing the difference in the taxes paid, the notice said.
Japan is temporarily hiking tariffs on U.S. beef imports, from 25.8% to 38.5%, for one month, Japan's agriculture ministry said, Reuters reported March 17. It said the bump up is because fiscal year 2020 volumes exceeded levels agreed to in the bilateral trade agreement signed between the two nations in January 2020. By early March, U.S. beef imports had reached 242,229 metric tons, topping the 242,000 metric ton limit set for the current fiscal year. The heightened tariff rate will last through April 16, marking the first use of the safeguard measure under the agreement. It will drop to 25% on April 17, the Reuters report said.
South Korea denounced the military takeover in Myanmar and issued countermeasures to punish the coup in the Southeast Asian nation, according to an unofficial translation of a March 12 news release. South Korea said it will stop new defense and security exchanges and cooperation with Myanmar; block exports of military materials to Myanmar and strictly examine export licenses for strategic industrial materials; and review development cooperation projects in the beleaguered nation. The release also said that South Korea will allow refugees to temporarily stay in its borders until the situation stabilizes.
The Singapore Customs TradeNet will undergo system maintenance March 28, 4 a.m. to noon local time, it said March 15. The agency advised users to avoid submitting applications during this time. This is in addition to the usual 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday maintenance.
Myanmar is waiving import and export licensing requirements for certain agricultural goods to help sustain the flow of food into the country, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report released March 15. The licensing exemptions will apply to certain food staples -- including rice, grains, oils, cotton, sugar and onions -- from March 8 through April 9, USDA said. While the country’s February military coup has crippled Myanmar’s logistics sector and delayed trade (see 2103090005), the exemption may provide “some relief” for U.S. wheat and soybean exports, USDA said. The agency said Myanmar’s largest barrier to trade remains the lack of drivers to move the more than 10,000 containers stuck at ports.