The Canada Border Services Agency updated its memorandum on national customs rulings on who can apply. Specifically, the memo was "revised to update the sections as to who may apply for a valuation, origin or marking NCR, and who can sign the consent statement." While the previous memo only mentioned importers, the updated memo says that NCRs "are provided as an administrative service for the convenience and guidance of importers, foreign exporters, and foreign producers." The updated memo also now says that "An importer, foreign exporter or foreign producer of a good, or agents thereof, may request a valuation, origin or marking NCR."

Canada is seeking public input on "economies that have publicly announced their own consultations or studies on potential [Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership] accession," Global Affairs Canada said in a notice. Those countries include South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Kingdom, it said. "The Government also welcomes views on the potential accession of any other Asia-Pacific economy. The Government may opt to launch further public consultations on specific economies that formally apply to accede to the Agreement." Submissions are due Aug. 25.

The Canada Border Services Agency recently updated its list of tariff classification verification priorities. "All goods on the list for a verification of tariff classification have been on previous verification lists," according to a July 26 blog post from Farrow. "However, for Parts of Machines and Mechanical Appliances and Other Chemical Products, the verification priority was released in December 2018 and results are not yet available."

Canada is seeking public comments on its July 20 proposed regulations that would amend certain import regulations, improve the country’s trade remedy system, improve its verification of import data and find additional tools it can give its customs agency to “address price distortions more effectively when calculating margins of dumping,” the country said. The regulations stem from concerns raised by Canada’s steel industry about the country’s “ability to address unfairly traded imports,” Canada said. The proposed regulations are the result of a “30-day consultation” with Canadian industries and workers. Comments are due Aug. 5.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of July 26 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The French National Assembly recently ratified the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the CBC reported. France's Senate must also approve the deal, but it can't overturn the National Assembly, according to the CBC. That brings the number of approvals of EU countries party to the agreement to about half, said Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, a lawyer at LexSage, in a blog post.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of July 24 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of July 24 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Mexico’s Tax Administration Service (SAT) issued 262 seizure orders for undervaluation in the first quarter of 2019, a year-on-year increase of 60.7%, according to a report on the Mexican business news site Opportimes. That’s even though SAT carried out only 625 value analyses during the first quarter, 60.1% fewer than the same period the previous year, the report said.

Portugal is gaining more access to Chinese agricultural markets and signed a “protocol” with China in June that allows Portugal to export “swine offals” to China, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a Foreign Agricultural Service report released July 23. That move comes after a May agreement in which China agreed “to facilitate Portuguese agricultural exports,” USDA said. Portugal expects the Chinese market to “open for all Portuguese swine offals” by 2020, the report said. The agreements are expected to “transform the structure of Portuguese pork industry” and will bring challenges to “slaughterhouses without their own pork production and without export strategies,” the report said. In addition, Portugal’s pork industry plans to increase hog production “to satisfy the domestic and increasing international pork demand,” USDA said.