European Parliament Member Louis Michel has called for a European Union law, similar to the U.S., to ensure traceability of imported minerals in order to combat the illegal exploitation of conflict minerals in African countries.

In the December 2, 2010 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted:

The World Shipping Council (WSC) and the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) have issued a statement entitled “Solving the Problem of Overweight Containers," which urges the International Maritime Organization to establish an international legal requirement that all loaded containers be weighed at the marine port facility before they are stowed aboard a vessel for export.

The World Trade Organization has published a request for a waiver by the European Union from GATT Articles I and XIII, concerning autonomous preferences for Pakistan, as an emergency response to promote Pakistan's economic recovery from recent flooding. The waiver would permit the EU to afford unlimited duty-free or other preferential tariff treatment to certain apparel products originating in Pakistan, without being required to extend the same treatment to like products of any other Member.

The Government of Canada issued the following releases on Dec 1, 2010:

The World Trade Organization has published a handbook on the WTO Customs Valuation Agreement.

The Government of Canada issued the following releases on Dec 2, 2010:

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) have published a new handbook setting out the advantages for exporters in developing countries of closer collaboration between national standards bodies (NSBs) and trade promotion organizations (TPOs), "Building linkages for export success." The handbook is available here.

The European Commission states that with the passing of the first registration deadline under the EU REACH program, chemical substances produced or imported in large quantities as well as the most dangerous chemicals, have now been registered at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). ECHA states that by the November 30 deadline, 24,675 registration dossiers were successfully submitted for 4,300 substances. Q & A document on REACH is available here.

The World Trade Organization announces that the sixth review of the trade policies and practices of Hong Kong, China takes place on December 1 and 3, 2010. The basis for the review is a report by the WTO Secretariat and a report by the Government of Hong Kong, China. An executive summary of the report is available here.