Costa Rica recently published a definition for “strategic sectors” to determine which goods qualify for those sectors and are subject to preferential treatment, KPMG said in a Nov. 26 alert. The definition indicates which industries “qualify as strategic,” specifying they must be strategic for the “development of Costa Rica” to benefit from the country’s Free-Trade Zone System, KPMG said. Costa Rica also published certain exclusions from the strategic sectors, including products in the financial sector, the mining of hydrocarbons, the production of weapons and ammunition, and electricity generation (except for self-consumption).
Canada is seeking public input “to ensure continued efficiency and effectiveness in administering Canada’s steel safeguards,” it said in a notice. “The information collected as a result of this consultative exercise will assist Global Affairs Canada in developing an allocation policy for the heavy plate and stainless steel wire [tariff rate quotas (TRQs)] for the period of February 1, 2020, to October 24, 2021,” it said. Since June and through January 2020, the TRQs are being administered through “an allocation pool, available to eligible applicants based on their historical import activities during a reference period” and “a residual pool, available on a first-come, first-served basis to applicants that did not receive an allocation,” it said. Comments are due Dec. 8.
The 2020 version of the Canadian Automated Export Declaration (CAED) program software will be ready for download on Dec. 9, the Canada Border Services Agency said in a Nov. 25 customs notice. Starting Jan. 31, only the 2020 CAED version will be valid, it said. The CAED program will be retired altogether on June 30, 2020, and replaced by the CBSA Canadian Export Reporting System (CERS), it said. “CERS is a free, web-based, self-service portal that will enable exporters and [customs service providers] to continue to submit export declarations electronically to the CBSA for the purpose of reporting the export of commercial goods,” the CBSA said. “It includes many of the same data requirements as CAED and is designed to accept Summary Reporting Program (SRP) reports of eligible goods, as well as have the functionality allowing businesses to submit a large set of declaration data via its 'bulk upload' feature.” Also beginning on June 30, 2020, “the CBSA will be mandating electronic export reporting and will no longer accept Paper Export Declaration Forms (B13A). Exporters, or their customs service providers, will be required to report their exports electronically.”
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency “is advising distributors, importers, restaurants, retailers, and institutions not to distribute, import, sell, serve, or use romaine lettuce, and products containing romaine lettuce, harvested in the Salinas growing region of California,” it said in a Nov. 22 notice. The advice follows U.S. government alerts concerning an E. coli outbreak that was traced to romaine lettuce from California, it said. “At this time, romaine lettuce that was harvested outside of the Salinas region has not been implicated in this outbreak investigation,” CFIA said. “Additionally, hydroponically and greenhouse-grown romaine does not appear to be related to the current outbreak and is safe to eat.”
Argentina and Mexico made several antidumping determinations on products from China and Malaysia, according to a Nov. 21 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Argentina will rescind its 178 percent antidumping duties on certain “conveyor belts of vulcanised rubber reinforced only with textile materials” and introduced a 56 percent duty on certain mainland Chinese knitted gloves, the report said. Argentina also determined that certain glass plates exported to Argentina from Malaysia are evading the antidumping duty on certain ceramic, marble and glass tiles from mainland China. Mexico began a sunset review of antidumping duties on certain concrete steel nails from mainland China, the report said.