The United Kingdom signed trade continuity agreements with Fiji and Papua New Guinea to continue trading on the same terms after the U.K.’s planned withdrawal from the European Union, the U.K.’s Department for International Trade said. “The agreement allows businesses to trade as freely as they do now, without any additional barriers or tariffs. It eliminates all tariffs on all goods imported from Fiji and Papua New Guinea into the UK and will gradually remove around 80% of tariffs on British exports to these countries,” it said.

The United Kingdom is making changes to its transit procedures to prepare for its planned withdrawal from the European Union, HM Revenue and Customs said in guidance posted March 13. Though the U.K. will lose access to the EU’s Union Transit procedures, which govern transit shipments between EU member states, it has come to an agreement with the EU to join the Common Transit Convention, which applies to the EU, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Turkey, North Macedonia and Serbia.

In the March 15 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The European Court of Auditors on March 14 issued a report on the European Union’s system for monitoring organic products, including imports. According to the report, EU member state monitoring of organic products and importers is still incomplete, and import supervision could be improved by better cooperation between member states and with the exporting countries. The report also discusses changes to the EU’s equivalence scheme that will set more stringent requirements for countries allowed to export organic products to the EU, as well as the EU’s work improving its monitoring of organic exporters to the EU, particularly in China.

The Ukrainian parliament recently gave preliminary approval to a draft law creating an authorized economic operator (AEO) trusted trader program, according to an alert from the law firm CMS. If approved, AEO status will give Ukrainian companies a simplified customs declaration procedure, a shortened form of import declaration, priority for customs procedures and permission to use a special traffic lane for truck border crossings, the alert said. To qualify, the company must be a registered resident entity in Ukraine, have no criminal records related to commercial activity (including company officials), have not committed repetitive or systematic violations of customs rules, and be financially solvent. A second and final vote in parliament is required before the bill is passed, CMS said.

The European Union recently issued a guidance document on trade and customs procedures for the EU after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom if there is no deal between the EU and U.K, according to a posting on the Malta Customs website. The guidance includes information on country of origin status, entry requirements, special duty-free classification and special procedures including transit, warehousing and inward and outward processing.

In the March 14 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue and Customs is delaying the effective date of a new policy interpretation that bars customs agents from using their own simplified procedure authorizations for customers that they directly represent. In a memo issued in August 2018, HMRC confirmed that authorization holders for certain simplified procedures -- including inward processing, outward processing relief, temporary admission and private customs warehousing -- must make declarations using these simplified procedures in their own name. “Where an agent wants to use their own simplified authorisation on behalf of a customer, they need to represent that customer indirectly, as the declaration must be made in the name of the person who holds the authorisation,” HMRC had said. The policy had been set to take effect April 1, at which point HMRC would have been set to “consider civil penalty action” for violations. But given that “there are multiple pressures on UK import and export business at this time,” HMRC will now allow until Oct. 1, 2019, for the change to take effect.

In the March 13 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

In the March 12 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: