In the Aug. 26 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The Eurasian Economic Union Commission completed its customs code harmonization to improve customs clearance time, “service portals,” rules relating to restricted goods, countries of origin and more, according to an Aug. 22 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The move is expected to “clear up the discrepancies and inconsistencies” related to several areas of customs and trade between the Eurasian Economic Union’s member countries: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The move will standardize the average customs clearance time to four hours, define required procedures for establishing exact customs values, list a series of banned goods and more, the report said.
China is renewing a customs agreement that allows Hong Kong traders to transship cargo from Hong Kong to mainland China under reduced tariffs, according to an Aug. 21 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The agreement allows for reduced tariffs for cargo from China’s list of “Least Developed Countries,” which includes mainly African nations, including Angola, Ethiopia, Uganda and more, the report said. The agreement allows Hong Kong traders to apply for “Certificates of Non-manipulation,” which make cargo eligible for “preferential tariffs,” the HKTDC said. The agreement was originally set to end on Aug. 1.
Canada updated its regulations under the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (CIFTA) for rules of origin for casual goods, the country said in an Aug. 21 Canada Gazette notice. The updated regulations "implement, in Canada, the rules of origin negotiated by Canada and Israel in the modernized CIFTA that will be used to determine when goods have undergone sufficient production to qualify for preferential tariff treatment," said Canada in another notice. "The rules of origin in the modernized CIFTA were simplified, liberalized, and brought up to date with Canada’s approach in more recent free trade agreements." The CIFTA tariff preference regulations were also updated.
Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security issued a guidance on Aug. 20 about the disclosure of technology or software subject to export controls “between and among members of standards setting or development groups or bodies.” BIS said it issued the guidance after receiving “a number of questions” about the temporary general license for Huawei and the Chinese company’s addition to the Entity List. The guidance tries to clarify which activities are prohibited among standards organizations when discussing Huawei and its Entity Listing.
In the Aug. 20 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Vietnam issued a circular to update the rules of origin regulations under the recent agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China, Vietnam Customs' mouthpiece CustomsNews said in an Aug. 20 report. Vietnam clarified how rules of origin apply to goods, “origin criteria for converting commodity codes at level of 4 digits” and regulations on the de minimis level. The circular will take effect Sept. 12.
China is adopting new measures to revise the rules of origin guidelines in its agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China’s General Administration of Customs said in an Aug. 20 notice, according to an unofficial translation. The changes, which took effect Aug. 20, will help China “correctly determine the origin of import and export goods” under the agreement and “promote economic and trade exchanges between” China and ASEAN member countries. China said its customs agencies began accepting certificates of origin issued by ASEAN member countries on Aug. 1.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Aug. 19 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Gibraltar's recent release of an Iranian oil tanker that had been seized by British authorities in July for potential sanctions violations came despite requests from the U.S. to continue to detain the ship, according to a statement released Aug. 18 by the United Kingdom territory.