The Canada Border Services Agency issued a customs notice on Feb. 10 to “clarify exporter and carrier obligations related to the proof-of-report and offer guidance on how to complete an export declaration.” The notice spells out three export scenarios and how to use the Canadian Export Reporting System in such cases. The system uses a “proof-of-report number” to indicate “that goods to be exported have been reported to the” CBSA.
Colombia introduced a new special import declaration requirement relating to free zones, according to a Feb. 5 KPMG report. The change, which was announced Jan. 28, relates to import declarations for imports from “special permanent” or “permanent free zones” to Colombia’s national customs territory, the post said. The declarations must be submitted on a certain form on the last calendar day of each month, KPMG said, and must contain certain information, including the use of “Code 99999999999 as a subheading, regardless of whether the merchandise may correspond to different subheadings, provided that they all have the same value added tax (VAT) rate.” The declarations must also be submitted through the “electronic computer services” of Colombia’s tax and customs authority, KPMG said, and free zone operators must submit information about the movement of goods “that have actually left the free zone.” The importer must pay customs duties within the first five days of the following month “in which the presentation and acceptance of the special import declaration was made,” KPMG said.
All Canada-European Union agreements will continue to apply to the United Kingdom through the Brexit transition period, Global Affairs Canada said in a news release. “This includes the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) -- which means that trade between Canada and the U.K. will continue to benefit from duty-free access on 98% of products, and businesses should see no change in how they trade with the U.K. during this transition period,” it said. The Brexit transition period will last until at least Dec. 31.
President Donald Trump, in a signing ceremony Jan. 29, said he would be ending the devastation that NAFTA brought and said that its replacement will strengthen what he called the country's blue-collar boom, “delivering massive gains for the loyal citizens of our nation.” Democrats, who were not invited to the White House ceremony, during their own press conferences ahead of the signing, emphasized how much they'd changed what the president submitted to them, by strengthening labor enforcement and environmental provisions, and removing patent protections for certain kinds of prescription drugs.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as he talked about attending the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement signing ceremony, acknowledged that there are a number of steps before the NAFTA replacement can come into force. He said on a Jan. 28 phone call with reporters that he thinks Canada will ratify “probably within the next 30 days,” but then all parties will have to show how they “will be able to carry out their USMCA obligations so that this can enter into force.” Here at home, uniform regulations for the new rules of origin have to be promulgated before the U.S. can certify it's ready for USMCA. Still, Grassley said, Trump will be running his re-election campaign on replacing NAFTA. “I'm glad he can say that, and I'm willing to say it for him, too,” he said. “He likes to brag, and this is legitimately something to brag about.”