India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade published the conditions under which Malawi exporters can ship tur (pigeon peas) to India, per a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum says India will allow 50,000 metric tons of the peas to be imported from Malawi over the next five fiscal years, 2021-22 through 2025-26. The peas will only be allowed to enter through five ports: Mumbai, Tuticorin, Chennai, Kolkata and Hazira. The pea shipments will be subject to "Certificate of Origin" certification by the "authorized signatories of Customs and Excise Division of Malawi Revenue Authority with stamps provided by the Government of Malawi." A scanned copy of the Origin Certificate will be sent by the authorizor to policy2-dgft@gov.in, and the Indian importer will send an email to DGFT with a scanned copy of the certificate along with the Importer-Exporter Code information, the release said.

Over 5,500 individuals were arrested in Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province during a seven-week raid of various operations in that triad, the South China Morning Post reported. The crackdown, code-named "Thunderbolt 2021," was held in two phases, fJune 6-July 11 and Aug. 16-30. Hong Kong police and customs officers detained 2,320 people for offenses including drug trafficking, deception, bookmaking and money laundering, the report said. This led to the seizure of more than $50 million in cash, narcotics and contraband goods. More than 1,100 people were arrested in Guangdong, and another 2,100 in Macau.

Singapore Customs arrested five individuals for illegally importing 6,000 cartons of cigarettes, while also seizing the duty-unpaid goods, the agency said. A Malaysian man and woman and three Singaporean men were arrested while attempting to smuggle the cigarettes. Singapore Customs observed the boxes being transferred into a Singapore-registered truck in Woodlands Industrial Park. This led the agency to seize 1,120 cartons of the cigarettes. These arrests led to follow-up checks, including one on a nearby Singapore-registered truck, prompting the seizure of another 4,928 cartons. The total amount of Goods and Services Tax evaded amounted to $516,490 and $41,430 (in Singapore dollars), respectively, the agency said.

China’s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., which was placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List last year, plans to build a nearly $9 billion chip production facility in Shanghai to help bolster China’s semiconductor ambitions, the Wall Street Journal reported Sept. 3. The facility will be built through a joint venture between SMIC and the Shanghai government, and will specialize in “mature technologies of 28-nanometer process nodes and higher and churn out 100,000 12-inch wafers a month when complete,” the report said, citing a SMIC regulatory filing. SMIC, which is also on an unclassified Defense Department list of Chinese military companies (see 2106280023), has come under intense scrutiny from some lawmakers, who view it as a threat to U.S. semiconductor leadership (see 2103190005).

China will lead an eight-fold expansion of the Qianhai economic cooperation zone, state-run media outlet Xinhua reported, as China announced the plan on the same day as a visit to Shenzen by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. The Qianhai zone, opened in 2010, will expand from 15 square kilometers to around 120 square kilometers. The expansion is intended to more greatly integrate Hong Kong and Macau's economy into the Greater Bay Area -- a region made up of Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other Pearl River Delta cities, Bloomberg reported. The plan generally calls for further liberalizing of the financial sector and services trade, including more cross-border securities investment and allowing cross-border use of the yuan.

China's General Administration of Customs implemented temporary antidumping duty measures on imported polyphenylene ethers from the U.S., in a Sept. 6 announcement, according to an unofficial translation. Starting on Sept. 7, polyethers in primary forms and "'poly-2,6-dimethyl-1,4-benzene Ether (including chemically modified or physically modified)' product number should be filled in 39072090.10, and 'other polyether in primary form” product number should be filled in 39072090.90,'" the notice said.

Thailand recently approved the use of certain export certificates for imports of U.S. wine, beer and distilled spirits, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a Sept. 1 report. The country will allow the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation form’s Model Wine Export Certificate for U.S. wine exports and the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau’s Certificate of Sanitation for U.S. beer and spirit exports. The exports will require “specific attestation,” USDA said, but the alcohol shipments won’t require any “additional testing or certificate of analysis.” USDA said it expects the approved certificates to “ease the import process” for U.S. alcohol shipments and “possibly help encourage new export opportunities.”

Sri Lanka seized 29,900 metric tons of sugar found hoarded in warehouses following investigations into the goods, the Commissioner General of Essential Services said Sept. 1. The sugar will be sold to the public through state and private traders' outlets at a controlled price, the release said. Sri Lanka halved its sugar import duty beginning Oct. 14, 2020, to give relief to consumers. As a result, 584,000 metric tons of sugar were shipped into the country through June 30, leading to the hoarding. The Sept. 1 seizure took sugar from these stores.

South Korean Customs is offering additional support measures to aid the customs clearance process for imports and exports around the Sept. 21 Chuseok holiday, the agency said Sept. 3, according to an unofficial translation. Of particular emphasis are agricultural, livestock and fishery products such as food supplies and emergency raw and subsidiary materials. The measures seek to either process immediately or ramp up the approval process for imports and exports related to the holiday. The customs service nationwide will operates a "24-hour special customs clearance support team" from Sept. 9 to Sept. 24, including holidays and nights, to support import and export customs clearance during the holiday period.

Singapore Customs will exempt a 20% duty on hearse imports for businesses providing funeral or undertaking services and incorporated or registered under an Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority administered act with “Funeral and Related Activities” as its main activity. In a Sept. 3 circular, the customs agency also found the duty exemption will apply only to hearses registered in the name of the business entity and registered under the Road Traffic Act as a goods vehicle. The agency reserves the right to reimpose the duty if the business contravenes any of the conditions or transfers the hearse to a “non-entitled person, unless the transfer is for the sole purpose of the other person destroying or ensuring the proper disposal of the hearse or exporting the hearse,” the agency said.