Mexico’s secretary of economy hopes to publish a decree later this week that will increase duties to 15 percent on 186 tariff lines, according to a report in El Universal. The tariff increase will apply to the steel, textile and apparel and footwear sectors, the report said. The steel tariff is being imposed to “avoid injury to domestic industry by worldwide steel overproduction" and the illicit means by which metals are imported into Mexico, it said.

A “major” Hong Kong retail chain is requiring local suppliers to notify the chain 12 weeks before they make price increases, prompting suppliers to allege a breach of competition law, according to a March 13 U.S. Department of Agriculture report. The 12-week advance notice would allow the retailer to obtain “sensitive commercial data” that would likely be beneficial, the report said, because the retailer also buys direct from overseas suppliers and carries its own branded products. “The information requested from suppliers is conducive to the pricing of the retailer’s own products,” USDA said. The report does not name the chain, but calls it a “major supermarket.”

China recently issued a national food safety standard for vegetable oil, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The standard, which was implemented in late 2018, provides standards for “crude vegetable oil, edible vegetable oil, edible vegetable blend oil and various edible vegetable oils used in frying food,” USDA said. The standard does not apply to “edible oil products, such as edible hydrogenated oil, margarine, shortening, cocoa butter substitute, whipped cream, and powdered oil,” USDA said. The standard includes certain requirements for the physical and chemical makeups of the oils.

Indonesia and Australia signed a trade agreement that provides tariff benefits for Australia and eases restrictions on import licenses on certain agricultural products, according to a notice from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The agreement, called the Indonesia-Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, provides Australia with lowered tariffs and “import license advantages” on “live cattle, frozen beef, sheep meat, feed grains, citrus products, carrots, and potatoes,” according to a March 8 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a report reminding U.S. exporters that Hong Kong’s policy regarding bans of U.S. poultry and eggs that may have been subject to an avian influenza outbreak defines the effective date as the date of departure from the U.S. The practice ensures U.S. poultry products on their way to Hong Kong can access the Chinese market when an outbreak occurs, even if the goods were produced during the avian influenza “incubation period.” Products produced before the incubation period will be accepted from the “affected country,” as long as they were shipped before the ban took effect, USDA said. “However, once the ban is imposed,” the report said, “products originating from or processed in the AI infected county well before the AI incubation period are not allowed entry to Hong Kong.”

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control made changes to one of its sanctions lists, replacing the List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Part 561 with the List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Correspondent Account or Payable-Through Account (CAPTA) Sanctions, OFAC said in a March 14 notice. The new list contains foreign entities “for which the opening or maintaining of a correspondent account or a payable-through account” in the U.S. is restricted, OFAC said. Foreign entities on the list are subject to the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, the North Korea Sanctions Regulations, the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations and the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015. OFAC also amended the Iran and Hizballah financial sanctions regulations to include references to CAPTA, the agency said.

The United Kingdom Parliament voted on March 14 to seek a delay of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union. The EU still has to approve the extension of Article 50, and the time frame of the departure is still to be determined, though it may be lengthy if the U.K. does not adopt the deal it negotiated with the EU, as appears likely after it failed twice in the U.K. Parliament in recent months.

The Mexican government is considering adding new products to a list of U.S. goods that face higher tariffs in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum. During a March 6 meeting "of the Foreign Trade Commission of the Mexican Senate, Luz Maria de la Mora-Sanchez, Foreign Trade Undersecretary of Mexico’s Ministry of Economy, announced that the Mexican government is planning to include additional items on its list of U.S. products subject to retaliatory measures," law firm Thompson Hine said in a blog post. The additional goods may be finalized by April, Thompson Hine said.

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​

In the March 13 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: