The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach again postponed a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers, the two ports announced Dec. 20. The ports originally planned to begin imposing the fee Nov. 15, but have postponed it several times (see 2111030027 and 2110280031). The latest extension delays the effective date to Dec. 27.
The Bureau of Industry and Security added 37 entities to the Entity List, including 34 Chinese research institutes and technology companies, for supporting China’s military modernization efforts or Iran’s weapons program. Other entities added to the list, located in Georgia, Malaysia and Turkey, supplied U.S.-origin items to Iranian defense industries, BIS said.
The European Union initiated a pair of anti-circumvention investigations into its antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics from China and Egypt, consigned from Turkey, the European Commission said. The investigation will cover certain woven and/or stitched glass fiber fabrics consigned from Turkey, whether declared as originating in Turkey or not. The investigations were initiated after TECH-FAB Europe requested them in November, alleging that assembly operations in Turkey substantially increased after the imposition of the orders.
China updated its origin standard for certain goods shipped from Hong Kong to the mainland, the General Administration of Customs said in a Dec. 8 notice, according to an unofficial translation. Starting Jan. 1, 2022, China will implement an annex to the Harmonized System code 56.03. The annex says non-woven fabrics, regardless of whether they are impregnated, coated or laminated, have been changed from other items to this point in that the regional value component from Hong Kong is calculated as 40% by deduction or 30% by cumulative addition.
The Census Bureau is proposing a new country of origin data element in the Automated Export System to help the U.S. better collect foreign trade statistics (see 2107010043), the agency said Dec. 14. If the rule is adopted, U.S. exporters of foreign-produced goods would be required to declare the country of origin for their item through a “conditional” data element in AES, Census said. Exporters would need to enter the origin information whenever they select “Foreign origin” in the “Foreign/Domestic Origin Indicator field.” Comments on the proposed change are due Feb. 14.
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach again postponed a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers, the two ports announced Dec. 13. The ports originally planned to begin imposing the fee Nov. 15 (see 2111030027) but have postponed it several times (see 2111290039 and 2112060041). Both ports said they've seen a combined decline of 47% in aging cargo on their docks since the fee was announced in October (see 2110280031). The latest extension delays the effective date to Dec. 20.
The World Trade Organization released a report recommending ways for landlocked developing countries to avoid trade bottlenecks and high trade costs resulting from their separation from the world's largest markets, the WTO said. "Easing Trade Bottlenecks in Landlocked Developing Countries" addresses the specific challenges these countries face, which include COVID-19 fallout, supply chain troubles and reliance on transit countries for imports and exports. LLDCs' trade costs are 1.4 times higher than those of developing countries with a coastline, the report said.
The European Union wrapped up its sixth round of negotiations with the five Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) countries on their interim Economic Partnership Agreement, the European Commission said Dec. 6. The parties discussed the following eight issues: technical barriers to trade, rules of origin, sanito-phytosanitary standards (SPSs), agriculture, intellectual property rights, public procurement, trade and sustainable development, and means of implementation. On SPSs, the parties have two outstanding issues, namely "capacity building and technical assistance" and an article titled "the Committee." The ESA and the EU agreed on provisions relating to equal import conditions, harmonization, animal welfare and emergency measures, the commission said. The ESA countries are Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe.
The U.S.’s new multilateral export control initiative includes a written “code of conduct” for licensing decisions for sensitive exports and new partnerships with allies to better control emerging technologies. The U.S. effort, previewed earlier this week ahead of the virtual democracy summit (see 2112090030), was officially announced Dec. 10 alongside Australia, Denmark and Norway, and includes support from other trading partners, including Canada, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
There has been “major improvement” in recent weeks to ease congestion across the Port of Los Angeles, “but there’s still so much work to do,” Executive Director Gene Seroka told a Washington Post webinar Dec. 9. The profound shortage of truckers and warehouse labor in Southern California remains a severe problem that won’t ease anytime soon, he said.