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.
Exports to China
China will soon begin accepting a second round of applications for exemptions from its retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, according to an Aug. 28 report from Xinhua, China’s state run news agency. The exemptions are for the tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods that China imposed Sept. 24, 2018. Companies can begin filing online applications for the exclusion process between Sept. 2 and Oct. 18, the report said. Xinhua said the China State Council’s Customs Tariff Commission will “offer temporary tariff exemptions or refunds of added duties” based on the applications. China also plans to launch an exclusion process for the most recent round of retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods announced Aug. 23 (see 1908230004).
Japan issued statements clarifying its position under its new export restrictions against South Korea, saying certain export conditions will be tightened but others will not be impacted. The measures, which took effect Aug. 28, place restrictions on chemicals -- and other goods -- used to make computer chips and other high-tech products (see 1908020023).
China’s Qingdao customs center officially began a "demonstration" to test its “intelligent gate,” which allows for faster clearance of cargo, China’s General Administration of Customs said in an Aug. 28 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The first test of the new system was on Aug. 22 with a container truck rolling through the gate of the customs facility and into an adjacent "logistics park." The gate “automatically” obtains vehicle information and container number from cargo entering through the gate and identifies the goods being transported, China said. China said the gates will reduce “logistics and transportation” costs for companies.
If the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is passed, its impact will be felt almost immediately, Vice President Mike Pence said, speaking to reporters in South Carolina on Aug. 27.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service released an Aug. 28 report on China’s increased tariffs on U.S. goods, including translations of the measures, their scope and descriptions of each product that will fall under the new tariffs. The report includes dates that tariffs will be imposed on each product. The report also includes separate lists of U.S. agricultural products, fisheries products and forestry products impacted by each round of additional tariffs.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Aug. 28 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 19-23 in case they were missed.
A China Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson denied knowledge for a second straight day of China's top trade negotiators phoning their U.S. counterparts over the weekend urging the resumption of talks toward a comprehensive trade deal, as President Donald Trump claimed they had on the sidelines of the G-7 summit.
In the Aug. 27 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: