China and Colombia signed a memorandum of understanding on e-commerce “cooperation,” including e-commerce trade promotion, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in an Aug. 1 press release. The countries aim to trade “high-quality specialty products in their respective countries through e-commerce” while also doing “joint research,” “personnel training” and “policy development.”
Exports to China
Singapore Customs issued a circular outlining changes and new requirements for rules of origin and certification procedures under revised regulations of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area, Singapore said in an Aug. 6 notice. The circular describes the requirements that have to be met for goods to be qualified as originating goods, and details the expansion to the list of “Product Specific Rules” and the inclusion of a de minimis provision. Singapore said the new requirements will take effect Aug. 15.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 29 - Aug. 2 in case they were missed.
The U.S. designated China as a currency manipulator, saying the country has been trying to gain an “unfair competitive advantage in international trade,” the Department of the Treasury said in an Aug. 5 press release. Treasury said China has “taken concrete steps to devalue its currency” in “recent days” and said China has openly acknowledged that “it has extensive experience manipulating its currency and remains prepared to do so on an ongoing basis.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will work with the International Monetary Fund to “eliminate” the unfair advantage created by China's latest actions, the press release said.
The Trump administration has “done virtually nothing to support exports,” failing to open new foreign markets for U.S. sellers while also tightening export controls, according to an Aug. 2 report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics. At the same time, U.S. export growth has “dropped sharply,” the report said. “Unless the president reverses course, his trade policy will continue to weaken rather than strengthen the US economy as well as undermine the global trading system,” the report said.
China will eliminate all duties and ease customs procedures at its Shanghai Free Trade Zone as part of an upcoming pilot program, Reuters reported Aug. 5. Chinese leaders are planning to discuss the plan this month and could announce the program this year, the report said. Among the topics of discussion, Reuters said, is whether U.S. goods and companies would be included in the program.
China is suspending purchases of U.S. agricultural products in retaliation for President Donald Trump’s decision to impose an additional 10-percent tariff on Chinese imports, according to an unofficial translation of a press release from China's Ministry of Commerce. China, calling Trump’s move a “serious violation” of negotiations, also said it is not ruling out imposing new import tariffs on “newly purchased” U.S. agricultural products. China said it has a “large market capacity” for U.S. agricultural goods and said it hopes the U.S. “will conscientiously implement the consensus reached” during the two sides’ last meeting.
The U.S.-China Business Council urged the Trump administration to reconsider his threat of a 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, saying the threats will hurt the reputation and businesses of U.S. exporters, in an Aug. 1 press release.
Imports from China to the U.S. fell 12 percent in the first half of 2019 compared with the January-June period in 2018, and exports to China fell by nearly 19 percent, a new Commerce Department report found. Although imports and exports to Canada were also down, Canada has now surpassed China as the second-largest U.S. trading partner in goods. Mexican imports were up 6.7 percent in the first half the year, and it is now the top trading partner in goods, with $311 billion in two-way trade from January to June. Canada was at $306 billion, despite a decline in both import and export volume. China's two-way trade with the U.S. was close to $290 billion.
China is expected to retaliate against President Donald Trump’s announcement on July 31 that the U.S. will be imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods under List 4, according to an Aug. 1 post by Ted Murphy, a Baker McKenzie lawyer. “We expect that China will retaliate … as it has done in the past,” he said.