If the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is passed, its impact will be felt almost immediately, Vice President Mike Pence said, speaking to reporters in South Carolina on Aug. 27.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service released an Aug. 28 report on China’s increased tariffs on U.S. goods, including translations of the measures, their scope and descriptions of each product that will fall under the new tariffs. The report includes dates that tariffs will be imposed on each product. The report also includes separate lists of U.S. agricultural products, fisheries products and forestry products impacted by each round of additional tariffs.
The Agricultural Marketing Service is proposing to lower its fees for rice inspection services, it said in a notice. The proposed rule would decrease fees across the board by 20 percent for fiscal year 2020, and again by 20 percent for FY21. Export port services would fall to $0.059 per hundredweight in the first year, and to $0.047 in the second. AMS is also proposing to set new formulas for annually updating its fees for rice inspection services. The fees have not been updated since 2010, AMS said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned five entities and five people for their involvement in procurement networks for Iran’s military, Treasury said in an Aug. 28 press release. The sanctions target two major networks led by Iranian nationals Hamed Dehghan and Seyed Hossein Shariat.
The United Kingdom’s post-Brexit tariff plan may not be a viable long term option and may significantly damage certain U.K. farmers, companies and exporters, said Robert Chapman, a London-based trade lawyer with Mayer Brown.
ExxonMobil is requesting that a court vacate a $2 million penalty imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control for doing business with Rosneft, a Russian oil company, according to a brief filed Aug. 26 with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Kenya finished introducing its Integrated Customs Management System, a new cargo clearing system and a “key milestone” in the country’s customs procedures, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said in an Aug. 27 report. The new system includes new “automated valuation benchmarking, automated release of green-channel cargo, importer validation and declaration” and a link to the country’s online tax system, the HKTDC said. The system requires exporters to Kenya to submit “import declaration forms, sea manifests/BAPLIE/IAR, security bonds, cargo declarations, and any exemptions,” the report said. The first shipment using the new system at the Port of Mombasa occurred on Aug. 10. Some importers complained “of teething problems and lack of support for the new system,” the HKTDC said, and have stopped importing because of problems. Kenya acknowledged the problems and said it will not penalize importers for failing to submit the proper documents during “their first interactions with the system,” the report said.
In the Aug. 27 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The United Kingdom's Department for International Trade on Aug 27 updated its collection of exporting country guides for U.K. exporters. The guides contain information on exporting to Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Oceania.
Some fruits and vegetables could face new restrictions on importation into the European Union beginning Sept. 1, according to blog post by Canadian law firm Tereposky & DeRose. That’s the date an EU regulation issued in March takes effect, setting new import requirements for some fruits and vegetables, including exporting country certification, many of which have not yet been met, the law firm said.