Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 26-30 in case they were missed.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species recently adopted widespread changes to international restrictions on trade in plants and wildlife at its triennial Conference of the Parties held Aug. 17-28 in Geneva. Among those changes are an expanded exemption from permit requirements for finished goods, including instruments, made from certain species of rosewood that will take effect sometime in November.
A Bureau of Industry and Security official acknowledged a delay in the agency’s proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, saying she and other top Commerce Department officials expected the notice to be published by now. “I personally thought foundational would be out faster than it is. It was not just higher-level people,” said Hillary Hess, BIS’s director of the regulatory policy division, speaking during a Sept. 3 panel hosted by the American Bar Association.
FedEx agreed to acquire Cargex S.A., a Colombian freight forwarder that specializes in customs brokerage services, FedEx said in a news release. "This addition strengthens the FedEx air freight forwarding and customs brokerage capabilities in Colombia and the broader Latin American region," FedEx said. "The acquisition is expected to close later this year and is subject to customary closing conditions, as well as a Colombian regulatory filing." After the purchase is completed, Cargex will be a subsidiary of FedEx Logistics, FedEx said. Terms of the deal weren't released.
The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
A major European trade credit insurance company currently puts the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit at 40 percent, it said in an export risk report dated Aug. 28. Euler Hermes says the United Kingdom is likely headed for new elections after a no-confidence vote on current Prime Minister Boris Johnson. That could potentially lead to a second referendum on Brexit, and would favor an approval of another extension of Article 50 by the European Union, “probably until Q3 2020,” Euler Hermes said in the weekly report. “However, we continue to give a 40% probability to a no-deal scenario.”
A top U.S. Department of Agriculture official, state officials and more than 40 representatives from the U.S. agriculture industry will travel to Canada in September to try to “expand sales” for U.S. agricultural exporters, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said in an Aug. 30 press release. Ted McKinney, USDA’s undersecretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, will travel with several state agriculture officials and 41 industry representatives on what USDA is calling a “trade mission.”
A Chinese tech company and a manufacturing company said the U.S.-China trade war is not damaging their business and instead said it is encouraging them to find other customers, including in Europe. Zhang Tianren, chairman of the board of directors for Tianneng Power International, and Lan Fenghui, president of Unitek Taxation Company, said during an Aug. 30 Ministry of Commerce press conference that they are not feeling the negative effects of U.S. tariffs. “Although there is a bit of hardship, it does not have much impact,” Zhang said, according to an unofficial translation of the transcript. Company names are via the unofficial translation as well.
China is studying its technology companies’ dependence on U.S. suppliers as it prepares for possible further escalations of the trade war, according to an Aug. 29 report in The Wall Street Journal. The moves also come as China reportedly plans to formally introduce its so-called unreliable entity list (see 1908220046). China has examined its companies’ reliance on foreign suppliers during the last few months, The Wall Street Journal report said, as part of its long-term goal “of weaning itself off dependence on U.S. technology.” By conducting the survey, Chinese officials are trying to ensure its important companies aren’t significantly damaged by any retaliatory measures against the U.S., the report said. China has reached out to several of the country’s “best-known smartphone makers,” the report said: Xiaomi Corp., Oppo and Vivo.
China is expanding a pilot program for parallel auto imports to increase the country’s foreign car market, according to an Aug. 30 notice from China’s Ministry of Commerce and a report from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency. The program for parallel auto imports -- whereby Chinese “independent auto dealers directly purchase vehicles from a foreign production base or auto dealer” -- will expand to give preferential treatment to certain ports that import more than “1,000 vehicles” annually, China said.