Natural Resources Canada recently finalized two amendments to its energy efficiency regulations. In Amendment 15, NRC will bring up to date four existing residential heating categories and add three new categories, as well as five new commercial heating categories. New categories include gas boilers, electric furnaces and water heaters. Amendment 16 applies to nine existing or new product categories. The new residential product categories are portable air conditioners and miscellaneous refrigeration products. Commercial/industrial clean water pumps was the only new category of commercial or industry products. According to NRC's forward regulatory plan, the agency is considering future amendments to the regulations and listed the new and existing product categories being considered for inclusion. "Stakeholders will be formally notified which of these products will be included in Amendment 17 before consultations begin," it said. "Additional products may be added in discussion with stakeholders, provinces and territories."
China has resumed accepting imports of beef from Brazil, after having suspended them on June 3 after a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy turned up in the Brazilian state of Mato Grasso (see 1906040066), according to a June 13 press release from the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. China is the only one of Brazil’s trading partners that has a policy of suspending imports when cases of atypical BSE are found, and Brazil’s Agriculture Minister said she will continue negotiating a new protocol with China, the press release said.
The World Trade Organization posted a trade policy review of Canada by the WTO Secretariat. The review is dated April 17 but was recently publicly released by the WTO. The review includes a broad look at many ongoing efforts on trade, including an update to NAFTA. "Canada is now following its domestic processes towards the timely ratification and implementation of the Agreement with a view to strengthening our commercial relationship with the United States and Mexico and providing important stability and predictability for Canadian businesses and workers," Canada said in its policy statement that accompanies the WTO review.
Argentina is adopting new product standards for sunglasses and glasses frames, it said a notice published June 12 in the Boletin Oficial of the Argentine Republic. Effective Dec. 9, imported and domestically produced sunglasses and glasses frames must comply with the international standards ISO 12312-1 and ISO 12870, respectively. Exempt from the new product standards are certain toy glasses, certain eye protection equipment including for sports (such as ski goggles) and sunbeds, medically prescribed glasses for reducing solar radiation and products for direct observation of the sun (such as glasses for viewing solar eclipses). The new product standards include marking and warning label requirements, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said in an alert. Importers may certify compliance through Dec. 8, 2022, but after that date must demonstrate compliance with reports prepared by an accredited lab, HKTDC said.
The chairman of a committee on trade negotiations made up of major Mexican business groups said June 10 that he knows of no deal to guarantee U.S. exports of agricultural products to Mexico, according to a report in the Mexican newspaper Milenio. Moises Kalach, chair of the Strategic Consultative Council on International Negotiations of Mexico’s Business Coordination Council, told the newspaper that “the information that we have is that there is no business agreement, nor export limits, nor purchases of American products; the deal is solely on topics related to immigration.” Kalach said there’s no way to make such a deal because private companies buy American goods, and there’s no way to obligate them to buy them.
The future for international trade with Canada is closely aligned with what will happen in the U.S. on several fronts, Canada-based law firm Bennett Jones said in its spring 2019 economic outlook report. The likelihood of passing an updated NAFTA recently got a boost through the end to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico and the retaliatory tariffs from those two countries, the law firm said. Still, the U.S. said it expects monitoring and surge prevention related to steel and aluminum, though it remains unclear exactly how this will occur. "It is not unlikely that difficult bilateral discussions still lie ahead, although it is to be hoped that the Americans would not readily reimpose these tariffs," the firm said.
Canada's legislature recently approved legislation to implement an updated Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement, Global Affairs Canada said in a May 27 news release. Jim Carr, minister of International Trade Diversification, was pleased with the royal assent of the legislation. “The modernized Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement represents another milestone in the great friendship between our two countries and promises even deeper relations in the years to come," he said. "Our new agreement improves access to the Israeli market for Canadian companies, creating the right conditions for small and medium-sized businesses to compete and succeed, and to create jobs for the middle class here in Canada.” Livingston International said in a blog post that "with both Canada and Israel having now completed their domestic ratification processes, the two countries will proceed to establish a date for the entry into force of the modernized agreement."