Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 15-18 in case they were missed.
The U.S. and China appear poised to reach some sort of "mini-deal" before the end of the year, said Bank of America global economists Ethan Harris and Aditya Bhave in an Oct. 18 report. "In our view, both sides see the other as being in a weakened negotiating position," the analysts said. "The US can point to the bigger economic slowdown in China than in the US. China can point to President [Donald] Trump’s impeachment investigation and his desire to maintain a healthy economy going into the election. This argues for a relatively balanced 'win-win' deal."
Mexico recently announced a temporary increase in tariffs on three subheadings covering steel products. Tariffs will rise from zero to 15 percent for semi-finished products of iron or non-alloy steel under Mexican tariff numbers 7207.12.01 and 7207.12.99, as well as for certain alloy steel ingots, primary forms and semi-finished products under subheading 7224.90.02. The tariff increase took effect Oct. 16, and will remain in place for 180 days until April 12.
The EU will apply its own tariffs to U.S. products, Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmstrom said in a news release. "“We regret the choice of the U.S. to move ahead with tariffs," she said. "This step leaves us no alternative but to follow through in due course with our own tariffs in the Boeing case, where the U.S. has been found in breach of WTO rules."
Singapore signed a free trade deal with the Eurasian Economic Union that will reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers while increasing customs cooperation, “respect for intellectual property rights and e-commerce protocols,” according to an Oct. 17 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The agreement will eliminate or reduce duties on 90 percent of Singapore’s exports to the EAEU -- which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia -- and will increase to 97 percent “over a 10-year period,” the report said. Duties will be reduced on “mineral fuels, oils and their distillates, prepared foodstuffs, machinery and mechanical equipment, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and precision instruments,” the HKTDC said. The deal will also eliminate tariffs on nearly all exports from EAEU to Singapore, the report said. The two sides also agreed to improved customs procedures, including “24 hours customs clearances, with priority items approved within four hours,” the report said.
China and Mauritius signed a trade deal that will eliminate or reduce tariffs on a range of products and increase “economic cooperation,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in an Oct. 17 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The deal will eliminate certain tariffs, reduce others below 15 percent and will include agreements on rules of origin, trade remedies, technical barriers to trade and "sanitary and phytosanitary issues," China said. The agreement will also expand Chinese exports of steel, tariffs and other “light industrial products” while allowing more sugar imports from Mauritius.
Two stalwart Republican supporters of the president joined with three Democratic senators to say that Congress is united in a push to levy sanctions on Turkey for its invasion of Syria.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson will take a second European Union exit deal to the U.K. Parliament on Oct. 19, after coming to new terms with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on an agreement on Brexit. Under the deal, Northern Ireland will formally remain part of the U.K. customs territory, but will also be an entry point into the EU customs zone with no tariffs on goods entering from Ireland and a vote in four years on whether to keep the arrangement in place, according to a BBC report.
Although the International Chamber of Commerce’s 2020 incoterms did not make the significant revisions that industries expected, it did introduce several changes that may require updated contacts between importers and exporters.
In the Oct. 11-16 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: