CBP issued a notice in the Feb. 12 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 54, No. 5) regarding the dates and draft agenda for the 65th Session of the World Customs Organization’s Harmonized System Committee (HSC), which will meet in Brussels March 11-20. Among other things, the HSC issues classification decisions on the interpretation of the Harmonized System (HS) in the form of published tariff classification opinions or amendments to the Explanatory Notes. It also considers amendments to the legal text of the HS.
In the Feb. 7-12 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The European Commission revoked some tariff preferences granted to Cambodia due to objections over human rights violations “enshrined” in Cambodia’s laws, the commission said in a Feb. 12 press release. The preferential tariffs will be replaced by EU standard tariffs and will affect certain garments, footwear, travel goods and sugar. The change will impact about one-fifth of Cambodia’s yearly exports to the EU, the press release said. The change will take effect Aug. 20 unless the European Parliament or Council objects. In a statement, Commission Vice President Josep Borrell said the preferential tariffs will be reinstated if Cambodian authorities “take the necessary measures.”
The United Kingdom has “confirmed plans” to put in place customs controls on Dec. 31 for goods traded between the U.K. and the European Union, according to a Feb. 10 press release from U.K. Cabinet Office member Michael Gove. “The UK will be outside the single market and outside the customs union, so we will have to be ready for the customs procedures and regulatory checks that will inevitably follow,” Gove said.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Feb. 12 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
The State Department recently held a ship registry management and compliance standards symposium in Washington, D.C., to share recommendations to counter North Korean evasion of sanctions in the maritime arena, the agency said Feb. 11. The symposium gathered representatives from international ship registries, classification societies, foreign governments and industry to improve due diligence and inter-industry communications to stop Illegal North Korean shipping practices. The United Nations is expected to release a report next month alleging that North Korea continued to violate international sanctions last year -- specifically through illegal ship-to-ship transfers -- with China’s help (see 2002110016).
The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on the impact of the Chemical Weapons Convention on “commercial activities” during 2019, BIS said in a notice. BIS said it is soliciting comments to help it prepare for its annual certification to Congress about whether “legitimate commercial activities” of chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms are banned by the CWC. Comments are due March 16.
Kuwait Airways Corp. was fined $700,000 as part of a settlement agreement with the Commerce Department after the corporation violated the Export Administration Regulations through antiboycott violations, Commerce said in an order released this month. The company, based in New Jersey, committed 14 violations of the EAR when it complied with an “unsanctioned foreign boycott” by refusing to accept passengers with Israeli passports. Commerce said it will suspend $100,000 of the fine if Kuwait Airways does not commit another violation of the Export Control Reform Act or of the EAR within the next three years, if it pays the remainder of the fine on time, and if it complies with the terms of the settlement. If the airline does not comply with the settlement, BIS may revoke the airline’s export privileges for one year and revoke the corporation’s current export licenses and exceptions.
Five U.S. citizens were charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after they tried to buy oil from Iran before selling it to a Chinese refinery, the Justice Department said Feb. 11. Nicholas Hovan, Robert Thwaites, Nicholas James Fuchs and Daniel Ray Lane arranged to buy the Iranian oil and sell it to a refinery represented by Zhenyu Wang, the agency said. Lane offered to launder money through his company Stack Royalties, the Justice Department said, and Fuchs and Thwaites planned to set up offshore accounts to avoid detection by U.S. authorities. The people also agreed to use a Polish shell company as a “straw seller” of the oil and allegedly planned to sell two shipments per month “for great profit.” If convicted, they each face a maximum 25-year prison sentence and a $1.25 million fine.
The U.S.-Japan mini-trade deal covers just 5 percent of trade between the partners, according to Bruce Hirsh, a principal at Tailwind, but he said the likelihood of further progress is small. Hirsh spoke while at the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones legislative summit on Feb. 11. “Japan wasn’t interested in doing a bilateral deal at all, but they recognized there was only so long they could keep the U.S. at bay,” he said. He said that what Japan gave to the U.S. “fell a little bit short of TPP,” or the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He said beef and pork got TPP parity, but rice got nothing and “dairy got a lot, but not everything.”