A Canadian government analysis of NAFTA's replacement -- known as the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement in that country -- estimates that it will increase Canadian GDP by just under 0.25% over five years. The estimate is based on comparing CUSMA to a withdrawal from NAFTA, not from the present trade deal.
Vietnamese importers are struggling to import goods from China due to delays in receiving certificates of origin because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a Feb. 27 report from CustomsNews, the mouthpiece for Vietnam Customs. Chinese suppliers have been unable to submit the certificates within the country’s mandatory time limit, which is causing traders to be unable to prove they qualify for preferential tariff rates, the report said. Normally, Chinese suppliers provide the certificates “a few days” after exporting the goods, the report said, but some certificates have been delayed by weeks. Some importers made declarations in January and have still not received certificate of origin documents to submit to Vietnam Customs, the report said. Vietnamese companies are reportedly asking the country’s customs authority to extend the deadline for additional submissions of certificates of origin to the end of March.
The U.S.-Swiss joint mechanism used to export humanitarian goods to Iran is now “fully operational,” the Treasury Department said Feb. 27. Treasury also issued a general license and a series of frequently asked questions to clarify how the mechanism can be used.
The State Department is creating a “Guidance Portal” that contains links to all agency guidance documents, the State department said in a notice. The portal will be available starting Feb. 28 at www.state.gov/guidance. The State Department will accept comments on any of the guidance documents included in the portal, by email at guidance@state.gov.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed a Thai national who pleaded guilty to illegally exporting firearms to Thailand in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, ICE said in a Feb. 26 news release. Apichart Srivaranon bought firearms parts online from U.S. gun manufacturers and had the parts shipped to addresses in the U.S. to “co-conspirators.” Once his co-conspirators received the shipments, Srivaranon told them to repackage the parts and falsely label and declare the contents as “spare parts, bicycle parts, fishing parts, or toy parts” before shipping them to Thailand through the U.S. Postal Service and private shipping companies, ICE said. Srivaranon also told them to alternate the frequency, addresses of the shipments and the value of the contents to “avoid detection.” The parts included components for AR-15 and M-16 military-style assault rifles. Srivaranon was removed from U.S. custody to Thailand Feb. 24.
The European Union's Committee on International Trade Chairman Bernd Lange, in a roundtable with trade reporters Feb. 27, said that he asked officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative if there's any truth to rumors that the U.S. will either pull out of the government procurement agreement at the World Trade Organization, or that it will seek to raise its bound tariffs, a process that would begin at the WTO. “I got confirmation from all stakeholders this will not happen,” said Lange, who was in Washington to talk with officials from USTR, Congress, unions and think tanks. But, he added, “sometimes decisions in the United States are taken quite quick,” so he can't be sure that answer will be true next week.
The United Nations Security Council renewed sanctions on people and entities threatening peace and security in Yemen for one year, according to a Feb. 25 notice. The sanctions were renewed with 13 UN members voting in favor and two abstentions: China and Russia. The sanctions also impose an arms embargo on militias in the region loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated its ISIL (Da'esh) and al-Qaida sanctions list Feb. 27 to reflect two deletions recently made by the United Nations Security Council (see 2002200013). The change removed asset freezes from Al-Mokhtar Ben Mohamed Ban Al-Mokhtar Bouchoucha and Imad Ben Bechir Ben Hamda Al-Jammali.
The U.S. renewed sanctions against Cuba to continue beyond March 1, 2020, according to a Feb. 25 White House notice. The White House said Cuba has “not demonstrated that it will refrain from the use of excessive force against United States vessels or aircraft.”
While it is too soon to tell whether recent U.S. reforms of foreign direct investment screening will prove successful, the regulations introduced novel provisions to incentivize improved global investment screening, according to a former investment screening counsel for the Treasury Department. The Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (see 2001140060) also appears to fill many of the gaps encountered by previous U.S. investment screening efforts, said Anne Salladin, a Hogan Lovells lawyer and former senior counsel to the chairperson of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.