Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru recently agreed to unified labeling requirements for certain apparel, textiles, footwear, leather and travel goods to ease compliance with labeling regulations for exporters in Hong Kong, China and elsewhere, according to a Dec. 31 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The new labeling requirements will take effect for footwear, leather and travel goods in November and for apparel in May 2021, the report said. The apparel labeling regulations require “product composition, care instructions and country of origin” to be placed on a “permanent label.” The labels for footwear, leather and travel goods must also contain certain materials disclosures, the report said.
Singapore Customs issued a Dec. 30 notice and guidance about taking the “Customs Competency Test for Declarants” in 2020, including where the test can be taken and how payment for the test is made. The guidance also contains a set of frequently asked questions.
China saw fewer imports of solid waste in 2019 after increasing enforcement of waste smuggling, according to a Dec. 31 report from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency. China said its total waste imports from January to mid-December increased by nearly 40 percent from the previous year, and the country’s customs authority investigated 21 percent fewer trash smuggling cases.
An upgraded economic partnership between Singapore and New Zealand takes effect Jan. 1, changing rules-of-origin procedures, updating documentation for preferential tariff treatment and more, Singapore Customs said in a notice released Dec. 31. The updated agreement changes the requirement that all manufactured goods have to contain at least 40 percent content originating from Singapore or New Zealand and introduces a new formula to determine whether a good qualifies as originating. And while companies can continue to “operate on a self-certification basis” to qualify for preferential tariffs, the agreement adds new entities that can issue certifications “attesting to the origin of the good besides the manufacturer,” Singapore said. The notice also contains a table describing each of the deal’s changes and which members of the supply chain they will impact.
Starting Jan. 1, “'X - No Unit Required' is not an acceptable Unit of Measure in the Automated Export System for most commodity classification codes,” the Census Bureau said in a Dec. 31 email. “There will be no grace period for this change.,” it said. The agency said in the email that “the Schedule B, Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), and HTS Codes That Are Not Valid for AES tables have been updated to accept the changes to the January 1, 2020 codes.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Dec. 23-27 in case you missed them.
President Donald Trump tweeted that he will sign “our very large and comprehensive Phase One Trade Deal with China on January 15” at the White House. "High level representatives of China will be present" and Trump is planning to go to Beijing "at a later date" to begin talks around Phase Two, he said. An administration official previously said the signing would be done between the U.S. trade representative and China's vice premier, and would happen in the first week of January (see 1912130035).
The U.S., China and Germany are the largest beneficiaries of the World Trade Organization, according to a report released Dec. 30 by the Bertelsmann Foundation. The three countries, also the world’s biggest exporters, saw the largest amount of income gains due to the WTO’s rules-based trading system, the report said. The report also finds a direct correlation between WTO membership and a sharp rise in exports, saying both the WTO and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade have led to a “significant increase” in global exports.
Pakistan is expected to increase cotton imports in 2020 due to a 17 percent reduction in domestic production compared with last year, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report released Dec. 30. The low production was due to a combination of “intense hot” weather and a “severe” pest infestation. Imports are expected to increase to 4.4 million 480-pound bales, from last year’s 2.9 million, USDA said. Pakistan will also “continue to import better grades of cotton from the United States and other reliable sources to produce quality products for its textile export markets,” the report said.
In the Dec. 30 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: