In the Dec. 11 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Country of origin cases
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Dec. 11 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
The Philippines and South Korea expect to agree to a trade deal by mid-2020 as the two sides have made “significant progress” on trade in goods, according to a Dec. 11 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The two sides are close on a deal regarding the Philippines' export of bananas, garments and auto parts and South Korea’s export of pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and auto parts, the report said. Agreements have also been reached on rules of origin, and the two sides are “confident” the deal will be completed soon, HKTDC said.
The World Customs Organization issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
In the Dec. 10 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Even though the Democrats won some changes to the new NAFTA that are seen as contrary to business interests -- primarily, removing extended patent protection for pharmaceuticals in Canada and Mexico -- business groups celebrated House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to hold a vote on the trade pact. A vote in the House is expected next week, but a Senate vote won't come until next year.
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security's upcoming set of proposed rules on emerging technologies may not be published until early next year, another sign of the delay that has plagued the rules since Commerce first announced them more than a year ago. Commerce has three emerging technology rule proposals in “various stages of clearance,” Hillary Hess, director of the BIS Regulatory Policy Division, said during a Dec. 10 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. The agency hopes to publish one proposal before the end of the year, Hess said, but urged committee members to take any prediction with “at least a handful of salt.”
In the Dec. 6-9 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The U.S. and Vietnam signed a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement meant to “further strengthen bilateral cooperation on security and the facilitation of lawful trade,” CBP said in an emailed Dec. 9 news release. “This agreement is a critical step forward in our economic and security partnership with Vietnam,” CBP Deputy Assistant Commissioner for International Affairs Erik Moncayo said. “The CMAA will enable the U.S. and Vietnam to more effectively combat terrorism and transnational crime while facilitating increasing volumes of lawful commerce.” The U.S. now has CMAAs with 82 countries, it said. In recent months, Vietnam has been trying to crack down on country of origin fraud and transshipment schemes that have become especially more frequent since the ramping up of U.S.-China trade tensions (see 1908280043).
Unions appear ready to endorse the changes Democrats won to the NAFTA rewrite, though the most radical change -- stopping goods at the border for labor violations -- isn't in the deal. On Dec. 9, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said to The Washington Post, “We have pushed them hard and have done quite well,” in getting changes to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The House Democrats pushed for changes to the USMCA on labor, the environment, the biologics data exclusivity period and overall enforcement. If the AFL-CIO endorses their changes -- as seems likely after Trumka's comment -- passage in the House could follow quickly.