CITES welcomed the historic resolution adopted by INTERPOL’s General Assembly on November 8, 2010. The resolution called upon national law enforcement authorities to recognize that “environmental crime is not restricted by borders and involves organized crime networks which engage in other crime types including murder, corruption, fraud and theft”. It noted that there is a vital need for a global response and that INTERPOL should play a leading role in supporting national and international enforcement.
Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang stated on November 6, 2010 that China will stick to its "opening-up" policy and try to improve its investment environment. Zhang pledged that China will continue to improve laws and policies for foreign businesses to ensure an open and transparent legal environment. Zhang also said China will encourage Chinese enterprises to "go abroad" and participate in international trade and economic cooperation.
Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming recently stated that China will maintain its exports of rare earths in 2011, denying reports that China would significantly reduce its export quotas. China was in talks with consumer countries and countries with rare earth reserves to find a solution to the supplies of rare earths, Chen said in response to reports that China would reduce its export quotas by up to 30% in 2011.
The European Commission has announced that the ninth Union for the Mediterranean Trade Ministerial Conference will take place November 11, 2010. Ministers will discuss joint working priorities for 2011 including actions to complete the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area, the establishment of a Euro-Mediterranean Trade and Investment Facilitation mechanism, and ways to enhance regional cooperation on fight against piracy and counterfeiting.
Mexico's Diario Oficial of November 5, 2010 lists notices from the Secretary of the Economy as follows:
The European Commission has posted a proposal to amend its regime for the control of exports, transfer, brokering and transit of dual use items. The last update of Annex I of the Regulation occurred in May 2009 and since this time, all of the international export control regimes have taken decisions to modify and update their control lists. Consequently, there is a need to make modifications to ensure that the commitments made by EU Member States are fully applied across the entire EU and that EU exporters have legal certainty as to which items require export licenses.
The Government of Canada issued the following releases on November 5, 2010:
The World Trade Organization announces that at a meeting of the “special session” of the WTO’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Council, which is the forum for negotiating the geographical indications register for wines and spirits within the Doha Round. intellectual property negotiators provided information on how key aspects of geographical indications protection work in their countries. They focused on what information is taken into account when a term is proposed for protection, and how this would be affected by the proposed register.
Brazil's Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade has announced that Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber has published resolutions lowering import duties on 167 products, principally in the automobile, chemical, and auto parts industries. (See resolutions for affected tariff numbers.)
In the November 5, 2010 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted: