The EU is creating a new, streamlined declaration type for low value imports worth less than €120, it said in a notice published in the July 5 Official Journal. The new customs declaration type contains fewer data elements than standard customs declarations, but still includes information on value-added tax as a result of the upcoming assessment of value-added tax on low-value imports. The new declaration type must be implemented by the time the VAT exemption for low-value gods is eliminated on Jan. 1, 2021, the notice said.

In the July 3 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom made several technical changes to its Export Control Order of 2008, the U.K.’s Department for International Trade said in a June 30 press release. Among the changes, the U.K. is updating its list of defense-related products to correspond with changes made to the European Common Military List, the press release said.

The EU plans to extend its antidumping and countervailing duty collections to the continental shelf and exclusive economic zones of the member states, the European Commission said in a July 3 news release. "Until now, EU customs rules only allowed trade defence measures to be applied to goods imported into the customs territory of the Union," it said. "The rules did not apply to goods brought to the continental shelf or exclusive economic zones of EU Member States, for instance for the exploitation of natural resources such as extraction of oil and gas and off-shore windmills." The new regulations are aligned with major EU trading partners, including the U.S., India and Brazil, it said. Exclusive economic zones are sea zones "over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources" and can be beyond a state's territorial waters, it said. The continental shelf is "the shelf extending from the coastline of the state to a drop-off point in the ocean," the EC said. The EU member states will have four months to "put in place the necessary administrative procedures," the EC said.

The recently announced trade deal between the EU and the South American countries in the Mercosur trade bloc (see 1906280060) could take between one and three years to come into force, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said, according to a Reuters report. The timing of implementation will depend on the approval of the involved parliaments, he said. Mercosur is made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Venezuela also is a member but has been suspended since December 2016.

Singapore and New Zealand recently signed agreements to recognize each other’s authorized economic operator programs, Singapore Customs said in a press release. “Companies certified by Singapore Customs as having robust security practices will benefit from faster clearance for their goods exported to New Zealand,” the release said. “Companies certified by New Zealand will similarly receive the same level of facilitation for their goods exported to Singapore,” it said.

Hong Kong recently signed mutual recognition arrangements on authorized economic operator programs with Canada (see 1907010035) and Israel, the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department (C&ED) said in a June 29 press release. Under the agreements, Hong Kong will recognize members of Canadian and Israeli AEO programs for customs clearance facilitation purposes, and Hong Kong AEOs will receive reciprocal treatment in Canada and Israel, the release said. “The inspection rate for AEO cargoes is generally 80 per cent lower compared with that for non-AEO cargoes,” C&ED said. The two MRAs mean Hong Kong now has a total of 11 with countries around the world, including China, India, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Exporters that produce and send goods from Puerto Rico to China may be able to avoid some of the tariffs on U.S. goods by using the U.S. territory as the origin, said Susie Hoeger, director of Global Trade Compliance and Policy at Abbott Laboratories. Hoeger mentioned the tip while speaking at the American Association of Exporters and Importers Annual Conference in Washington on June 27. "Chinese Customs has chosen to treat Puerto Rico differently than the U.S.," she said. "So if you don't know this and make things in Puerto Rico, declaring that as Puerto Rico origin instead of U.S., which is all the same for us, the tariffs don't hit. They've chosen to carve that out for some reason." Census Bureau statistics seem to show a recent uptick in exports to China from Puerto Rico. According to Census, the value of goods exported from the territory to China increased by 53.6 percent from 2017 to 2018.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Cubametales, Cuba’s state-run oil import-export company, for importing oil from Venezuela, Treasury said in a July 3 press release. In exchange for the oil, Treasury said, Cubametales provides Venezuela and the Nicolas Maduro regime with “defense, intelligence and security assistance.”

Instex, the European payment system designed to allow countries to trade with Iran despite U.S. sanctions, is mostly symbolic, several trade lawyers said. The system is a potentially useful tool to appease Iran’s demands for greater cooperation with Europe, lawyers said, but likely an insignificant mechanism in brokering major trade.