Vietnam "completed" its draft amendments to various export and import tariffs, which includes a change to the “regulations on preferential import tax rates for raw materials, supplies and components to manufacture” goods for the auto industry, Vietnam Customs' mouthpiece CustomsNews said in an Aug. 22 report. The regulations include a zero percent “preferential import tax rate” for “domestic raw materials, supplies and components that have not yet been produced in the period of 2019-2023,” the report said. The report also clarifies how companies can qualify for the lowered import tax rate.

An Indian national was sentenced to prison after being convicted on charges of illegally importing thousands of packets of cigarettes and avoiding more than $120,000 (in Singapore dollars) in taxes, Singapore said in an Aug. 21 press release. Singapore said Veerappan Vimalraj stored more than 13,000 packets of duty-unpaid cigarettes and more than 10,000 “sachets of prohibited chewing tobacco” in a storage facility and routinely delivered the goods to customers in Singapore, who would try to avoid detection by not dealing with Vimalraj face to face for the transaction. Vimalraj was sentenced to about 19 months in prison.

Israel and South Korea signed a trade deal that will ease customs duties for both sides, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an Aug. 21 press release.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls rescheduled its In-House Seminar from Sept. 18 to Oct. 9 due to scheduling conflicts, the DDTC said in an Aug. 22 notice. DDTC is extending registration for an additional week, but remains "first-come, first-served." Questions should be directed to DDTCInHouseSeminars@state.gov.

CBP will hold the 2020 Trade Symposium in Anaheim, California, March 10-11, the agency said in an emailed notice.

CBP is close to bringing industry on board to "go operational" with electronic manifest for export, said Jim Swanson, director of CBP’s Cargo and Security Controls Division, during the Aug. 21 Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee meeting in Buffalo, New York. Swanson said he has multiple meetings in the coming weeks with companies about using electronic manifest. CBP has been testing it internally for a while, Swanson said.

China will impose tariffs on about $75 billion worth of U.S. goods in retaliation for the coming 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods, China’s State Council said, according to an unofficial translation. China said it will impose either 10 percent or 5 percent tariffs on more than 5,000 U.S. products. The tariffs will be imposed in two separate batches on Sep. 1 and Dec. 15, China said.

China’s Ministry of Commerce repeated claims that it will retaliate against higher U.S. tariffs, said it opposed new U.S. measures against Huawei and plans to make an announcement involving its so-called unreliable entity list “soon,” spokesman Gao Feng said at an Aug. 22 press conference, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript from the briefing.

Norway is proposing to amend regulations to simplify customs clearances and the country’s value-added tax system for low-value shipments, according to an Aug. 19 KPMG report. The proposal would repeal VAT exemptions and other “indirect taxes” on imports worth less than about $350. New legislation would leave sellers and “online marketplaces … liable for VAT on cross-border sales of low-value goods to final consumers in Norway,” KPMG said. Online sellers would “register, declare, and pay VAT” on the sales under the new system, KPMG said, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2020.

United Kingdom customs authorities on Aug. 21 announced plans to accelerate Brexit preparations for U.K. traders by automatically registering more than 88,000 value-added tax registered companies for Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) numbers over the next weeks “in order to keep trading with customers and suppliers in the EU after the UK has left.”