Vietnam Customs seized three shipments containing more than 1,000 pairs of Nike-labeled shoes suspected of being counterfeit, the agency announced April 14 via its news operation CustomsNews. The agency confiscated the shoes along with 24 boxes of makeup powder labeled as Yves Saint Laurent. The individuals caught with the shipments said the goods were manufactured in foreign countries, but the agency found no documents verifying the country of origin, the report said. The confiscations took place April 4 to 9, in the Mong Cai and Quang Ninh areas.
India's Director General of Foreign Trade allocated an additional 3675.13 metric tons of raw/refined sugar to the United Kingdom under the tariff-rate quota scheme for the period of 2020-21, the agency announced in a trade notice. The additional quantity is beyond the 10,000 MT quota, under which the sugar is duty free, set under the current regime and is extended to Sept. 30.
China's General Administration of Customs will bar all imports from Malaysian aquatic products manufacturer Jefi Aquatech Resources and all Pakistani aquatic products for one week, the agency announced in two customs notices. According to an unofficial translation, the imports are being blocked due to the detection of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 on an inner packaging sample from Malaysia and an outer packaging sample from Pakistan.
India now prohibits exports of antiviral medication Remdesivir, used to shorten COVID-19 recovery times, along with the drug's active pharmaceutical ingredients, effective with an April 11 trade notice. The products are under Indian Trade Classification Harmonized System Codes Ex 293499 and Ex 300490.
Vietnam has added eight new terminals along the country's coastline, bringing its total to 286, CustomsNews, the Vietnam Customs agency's mouthpiece, reported April 12. Four of the new terminals are located at the Vung Tau Port in Southern Vietnam. Hai Phong, Khanh Hoa, Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City each added one terminal.
India recently amended standards for a range of food and agricultural products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service reported April 9. The amendments, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2022, will affect certain fruit, grains, flours, cereals and egg products, USDA said. The measures also include “major revisions” to standards for certain “substances added to foods,” including trehalose, tocopherols and other “food processing aids and enzymes.”
The U.S. placement of seven Chinese supercomputing entities on the entity list (see 2104080011) is an attempt to “unscrupulously and maliciously suppress Chinese high-tech companies,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said April 9 during a regular press conference, according to a transcript provided. The spokesperson decried the placement as driven by U.S. “desire to maintain” its scientific edge over China and an abuse of the “national security concept.” Despite these punitive measures to development, China said, it has become a tech innovator in the field of supercomputing due to its “independent innovation.” The spokesperson said the U.S. measures will only make China more determined to innovate in this field. The comments were in response to a question from a Bloomberg reporter, according to the transcript.
A 24-hour, one-stop digital logistics service for Indonesia's Batam Island that delivers streamlined trading procedures and serves as a digital hub for port services is now live, Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported April 8. The logistics hub will also be used for import/export permit applications and document submissions for trade on the island. The move is meant to bolster the ease of trade and spur investment in the Riau Islands, the home province of Batam, which lacks the efficiencies of nearby Singapore, HKTDC said. The new service will be delivered via the country’s existing National Logistics Ecosystem platform, which was set up to deliver streamlined, integrated trading procedures, while also acting as a digital hub for the described services.
India's state-run oil refiners are preparing to buy Iranian crude oil due to expectations that the new U.S. administration will ease sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, according to a senior oil ministry representative, Bloomberg reported April 8. Indian refiners are making preparations so that purchasing contracts can be quickly executed when sanctions are lifted. Preparations include drafting commercial terms and enacting a system to quickly assess crude quality, the outlet reported. The desire for Iranian oil comes from India's dissatisfaction about the prices of oil from Saudi Arabia. Indian refiners have been buying oil from Guyana and Norway while also importing more from the U.S. India imports more than 85% of its total oil, Bloomberg said.
China's General Administration of Customs has banned the import of cloven-hoofed animals and their products from Mauritius due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on the island, the agency announced in an April 6 notice, according to an unofficial translation. The World Organization for Animal Health identified the outbreak March 27 on a farm in Rodrigues, Mauritius.