The Office of the United States Trade Representative is seeking applicants for the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa for the four-year term that begins in March. Applicants should have knowledge on U.S-Africa trade, including under the African Growth and Opportunity Act; the government is interested in hearing from people with expertise in trade facilitation; sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and technical barriers to trade; trade capacity building; constraints to trade; investment treaty negotiations; and implementation of World Trade Organization agreements. Applicants can be from industry or services businesses, organized labor, agriculture, non-profit development organizations or academia. Members who are selected will advise USTR on negotiating objectives, the impact of trade agreements, and fulfilling the objectives of AGOA. USTR is seeking to have a diverse committee, not just by demographics, but also by region of the country, the size of the organization the member represents, sectors and points of view.

Kenya recently announced tariff exemptions for imports of non-genetically modified feed ingredients due to rising domestic feed costs, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service said Dec. 27. The exemptions, issued Dec. 10 and valid until Oct. 31, 2022, were granted to 18 Kenyan millers for yellow maize, soy meal, soybeans, cottonseed cake, sunflower seed, white sorghum and fish meal. Each miller was issued “product-specific quotas” for duty-free importation, USDA said. The agency said Kenya is “suffering from a dramatic increase in feed prices” caused by an ingredient shortage, but “local sources” don’t expect the tariff exemptions to lower prices because of the “limited” global supply of non-GM feed ingredients.

Kuwait recently banned commercial ships carrying goods to and from Israel, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Dec 15. Under the ban, which took effect Dec. 4, Kuwait will deny entry to all vessels trading with Israel -- even vessels that transport goods from Israel to a third country, the report said. Kuwait already bans imports or exchanges of goods with Israel.

An e-commerce platform that will allow traders to more easily import goods from the Middle East and East Africa was launched in Kenya recently, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Nov. 19. The platform will provide a “trading gateway” into Africa through the eight port terminals operated by DP World and will promote trade in “areas including technology, blue economy, transportation, aviation, manufacturing, mining, healthcare and employment,” the report said. The platform was successfully launched in Rwanda earlier this year and received more than 500,000 website visits from African sellers and buyers, HKTDC said.

The Southern African Development Community recently extended its Trade Facilitation Program, which aims to improve intraregional trade flows between the SADC member states, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Nov. 23. The program, which was extended through 2030, helps ease some trade challenges between some African states, including supply‑side constraints, restrictive practices, the high cost of trading between member states because of poor infrastructure, delays in import and export clearances, inefficient transit traffic, “complicated” rules of origin, and the rise in non-tariff trade barriers, HKTDC said.

The Economic Community of West African States, responding to political upheavals in Mali and Guinea, said it will impose sanctions on Malian transition authorities, transition entities and the family members of those identified. The restrictive measures include a travel ban and asset freeze. ECOWAS also said that it will maintain sanctions on members of Guinea's National Committee of Reconciliation and Development -- which staged a coup earlier this year -- and their family members "until constitutional order is restored." The decisions follow the Nov. 7 ECOWAS summit on both countries' situations.

The Israeli government designated six Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organizations, the Ministry of Defense said. The six entities are the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, the Al-Kamir Legal Institute, Bisan Center for Research and Development, Al-Haq, the Defense for Children International-Palestine and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees. The groups were designated as terrorist organizations due to their alleged links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Defense Ministry said. It said the groups use their role in civil society to mask their ties to the PFLP.

South Africa recently amended its Customs and Excise Act to align it with the World Customs Organization’s 2022 Harmonized System, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Nov. 2. The change, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2022, will require all declarations to be “in accordance” with the WCO’s upcoming 2022 edition of the HS tariff structure (see 2101220042). South Africa's processing system will not accept declarations that contain codes that have been deleted in the WCO update, HKTDC said.

Egypt recently approved temporary decreases in duties and taxes on certain industrial inputs in a bid to support its manufacturing sector, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Oct. 20. Certain entities and projects will be eligible for zero customs duties, fees and other taxes for imports of “priority inputs” used to manufacture “finished export goods,” HKTDC said. Some companies may also be eligible for eased import customs clearance, including priority customs declaration registration and release.

The U.S. and Morocco recently completed a sanitary certificate to allow exports of live aquatic animals to Morocco, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said Oct. 15. The certificate, completed Oct. 12, will offer “new opportunities” for exporters of aquatic animals, “gametes and eggs of aquatic animals intended for farming, restocking and ornamental uses,” USDA said. Morocco is hoping to grow its aquaculture production sector and “considers it a strategic priority,” USDA said, adding that aquaculture production in the country will soon overtake wild-caught products. The report includes a copy of the new export certificate.