The Canada Border Services Agency should review the Courier Low Value Shipment Program "to improve the validation and collection" of sales taxes, the Auditor General of Canada said in a recently released report. The report focused on the growth of e-commerce from 2014 through February of 2019. "We found that existing legislation, combined with the Canada Border Services Agency’s poor data management of low-value shipments imported into Canada by courier companies, placed Canadian businesses at an unfair disadvantage in relation to foreign vendors," the Auditor General said. "According to the Department of Finance Canada, the situation could have encouraged domestic vendors to move their operations abroad and could have discouraged foreign investment in Canada."
The International Trade Commission estimated that by the sixth year after the new NAFTA's ratification, the U.S. economy would have 176,000 more jobs than it would have without the new revised trade deal. That's a 0.12 percent increase compared to the status quo.
FTI Consulting will now offer services related to export controls and sanctions compliance, the company said in an April 16 news release. "The Export Controls and Sanctions offering at FTI Consulting includes compliance program assessment and design, implementation and remediation; investigations and disclosures; independent monitoring or related support services; supply chain and third-party risk management; trade control audits and reviews; license application preparation and license management support; de minimis calculation analysis; deemed export control reviews; wind-down support for sanctioned country operations; and compliance crisis management," the company said. FTI hired Matthew Bell, who previously worked as chief export compliance officer at ZTE, as senior managing director to lead the new effort. “The complexities and changing nature of export control and sanction regulations require companies to undertake vigilance, ongoing training and continuous process improvement, particularly as governments have signaled additional enforcement and trade disputes have increased,” said Paul Ficca, global leader of the Forensic & Litigation Consulting segment at FTI Consulting.
The European Union and the U.S. have not formally begun the trade talks first agreed to last July, as the 28-member bloc still does not have a mandate to negotiate. Given that, many observers are doubtful negotiations could make substantial progress this year.
China overhauled its e-commerce regulations in recent months, upping its de minimis level and adding new responsibilities for logistics providers and foreign suppliers, and also adopted new regulations on foreign medical device facility inspections. Meanwhile, China's General Administration of Customs has recently set new requirements for bonded zones and set lower value-added tax rates for some products. The following is an update on recent customs and trade-related actions by China:
Work continues at CBP on its electronic pre-departure export manifest system, which the agency sees as a necessary precondition before the post-departure Automated Export System filing program is brought back, said Jim Swanson, CBP director-cargo and conveyance security and controls, in an interview. CBP is working on operational benefits for carriers to ramp up participation in its pilots in the ocean, rail and air modes, and hopes to move forward with truck pre-departure manifest next year, Swanson said.