The State Department designated Zimbabwe’s minister of state for national security, Owen Ncube, for human rights violations, the State Department said Oct. 25. The State Department said it is “deeply troubled” by the Zimbabwean government’s use of violence against peaceful protestors and the opposition party. The designation means Ncube may not enter the U.S.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. is “ahead of schedule” in signing the first phase of a U.S.-China trade deal.
The United Kingdom will not leave the European Union on Oct. 31, after the EU and the U.K. agreed to postpone Brexit day to Jan. 31, 2020. European Council President Donald Tusk on Oct. 28 announced the Brexit “flextension,” which allows the U.K. to leave earlier if its Parliament approves a recently renegotiated transition deal. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson accepted the extension later that same day, as required by a law passed by Parliament in September (see 1909090056), a BBC report said.
Commerce Department Huawei export restrictions forced semiconductor maker Xilinx to remove all remaining Huawei-related “revenue expectations” from its financial outlook for fiscal 2020 ending in March, CEO Victor Peng said on a fiscal Q2 call Oct. 23. “Considering the continued trade restrictions with Huawei and the uncertainty presented to our business, we believe it is prudent” to “de-risk” the Chinese company from the forecast, Peng said.
In the Oct. 25 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Britain's Department for International Trade recently held 130 workshops to help small businesses “continue and increase their trade” after Britain leaves the European Union and plans to launch a “market access database” for traders, according to an Oct. 25 press release. The DIT said it invited “thousands” of small businesses to the workshops to “develop personalised plans” for trade after Brexit, discussing which paperwork businesses need to continue exporting and the impact of Brexit on supply chains. The DIT also clarified changes to regulations and contracts and where to find tariff confirmation, commodity codes and duty rates.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Oct. 25 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Japan Trade Minister Isshu Sugawara resigned Oct. 25 following allegations that he violated election law, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, according to an unofficial translation. Sugawara’s duties involved filling a “key post” in Japan’s ongoing trade dispute with South Korea (see 1910240032), according to Reuters. Abe asked Hiroshi Kajiyama, a former member of Abe’s Cabinet, to fill the role. Abe hopes to quickly fill the role to avoid “delay in the important administrative and policy-making fields such as industrial policy, trade policy, and energy policy,” he said.
Indonesia’s president instructed officials to increase the country's exports in new and revised trade agreements, the government’s Ministry of Trade said Oct. 25, according to an unofficial translation. Indonesia wants to increase commodity exports that lack “opportunity” in foreign markets, the notice said. "For example, the products we export to the United States, but other countries with similar goods come in better. It means cheaper, deals with tariffs and so on," an Indonesian official said. As part of its plans, Indonesia said it plans to cut regulations that impede exports, the notice said.
India said many traders are “not doing due diligence” while entering Harmonized System codes in bills of entry and shipping bills, and warned that violators will be subject to penalties, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in an Oct. 22 notice. The country said “many importers” are not entering “the correct HS codes at 8 digit level,” creating “avoidable errors in India's import data.” Traders should “indicate the specific HS codes of items at 8 digit [level] where they exist, instead of using the ‘Others’ category in a loose and inaccurate manner,” the notice said.