Bangladesh will introduce a database of sanitary and phytosanitary measures to help importers and exporters better comply with global requirements on “food safety, plants and animal health issues,” according to a Sept. 1 report from New Age, a Bangladesh-based newspaper. In doing so, Bangladesh’s commerce ministry has asked traders and other industry representatives to detail common challenges they face when dealing with sanitary requirements, the report said. A common problem is a lack of knowledge about the requirements by other countries, the report said. Bangladeshi officials suspect some countries of using the requirements as non-tariff barriers, according to the report.
China has put into place part of the retaliatory tariffs it announced Aug. 23 (see 1908230004). The tariffs increased just after midnight on Sept. 1, just as the latest escalation from the U.S. did. The 10 percent increase in tariff rates applies to 270 products, according to an unofficial translation of a China Customs Tariff Commission document.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 26-30 in case they were missed.
A Chinese tech company and a manufacturing company said the U.S.-China trade war is not damaging their business and instead said it is encouraging them to find other customers, including in Europe. Zhang Tianren, chairman of the board of directors for Tianneng Power International, and Lan Fenghui, president of Unitek Taxation Company, said during an Aug. 30 Ministry of Commerce press conference that they are not feeling the negative effects of U.S. tariffs. “Although there is a bit of hardship, it does not have much impact,” Zhang said, according to an unofficial translation of the transcript. Company names are via the unofficial translation as well.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is soliciting comments at regulations.gov, docket number USTR-2019-0012, on tariff and non-tariff barriers in 61 countries, the European Union and the countries of the Arab League (some of which are included in the list that follows). The topics stakeholders can comment on are wide-ranging -- from tariffs, customs practices, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures not based on science, to subsidies, intellectual property enforcement, data localization, discriminatory licensing or regulatory actions and investment restrictions. They also asked about Buy America-equivalent policies in other markets. The countries under review for the annual trade barriers report are: Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine and Vietnam. Comments are due by midnight Oct. 31.
The International Chamber of Commerce is expected to revise its incoterms to “clearly and accurately reflect current trade practices” when it releases its new set of the international commercial terms in September, according to an Aug. 29 post from Export Solutions.
In the Aug. 29 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Argentina recently established a “special temporary import regime” for used goods “intended for exploration, exploitation and perforation activities by the hydrocarbon industry,” according to an Aug. 29 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Certain imports under this regime will face an import duty that is “0.5 to 1.0 percentage points higher for each year of age than the applicable [Most Favored Nation] import duty for new goods,” the report said. Other goods are subject to duty-free treatment, the report said. Companies must be registered in the “registry of oil companies” or act as a supplier for a registered entity, the HKTDC said. The temporary tariff regime will remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2020.
The Department of Homeland Security signed a letter of intent with El Salvador to increase cooperation in several areas, including trade, according to a copy of the letter obtained by PBS and an Aug. 28 DHS press release. The U.S. plans to work with El Salvador to reduce “non-tariff trade barriers to promote foreign direct investment, trade facilitation, and customs enhancement,” the letter said.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the preview of the Japan trade agreement talked about at the G-7 may only be in principle so far, "but I think this Japanese agreement will give farmers some reason to smile." Grassley, who was speaking with reporters on a conference call Aug. 29, said the deal would give dairy producers, wheat farmers, beef and pork producers and ethanol producers better access to Japan's market in return for eliminating U.S. tariffs "on certain industrial products," and the tariffs on those products are already pretty low.