Quebec is increasing the de minimis threshold for non-taxable imports from Mexico from $20 to $40 (in Canadian dollars), according to a July 31 report from KPMG. KPMG said the change is “related to the implementation” of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but did not specify when the change would take effect.
Brazil suspended the implementation of a regulation relating to its “Ex-Tarifario list,” which allows for duty-free or reduced tariff treatment of certain imports in the information technology and telecommunications sectors that are not available domestically, according to an Aug.1 report by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The regulation was criticized by Brazil’s industry, which said it allows “the addition of used goods to the Ex-Tarifario list” and introduces new parameters for comparing “the equivalency of foreign and domestic goods, such as price and delivery times,” the report said.
Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration is requiring health certificates for imports of eggs, egg products, gelatins and gelatin derivatives “intended for food use,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released July 31. The changes took effect Aug. 1. USDA is advising U.S. exporters to obtain the certificates for all shipments leaving the U.S. on or after Aug. 1.
Taiwan lowered Most Favored Nation tariffs on certain agricultural goods from Japan in a bid to “normalize” the Taiwan-Japan trade relationship, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report issued July 31. The two countries’ trade relationship is marred by the 2018 “anti-Fukushima food referendum,” the USDA said, which kept in place a ban on Fukushima agricultural exports to Taiwan for two years. Taiwan is hoping the tariff reduction helps it earn Japanese support for joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the report said. The tariff changes were passed by Taiwan’s legislature July 2.
Singapore is issuing a new “strategic goods control list” to bring Singapore trade controls “up to date” with the 2018 Wassenaar Arrangement's Munitions List and the 2018 European Union Control List of Dual-Use Items, Singapore customs said in an Aug. 1 notice. The list includes new controls, removes other controls and includes “editorial changes for consistency and clarity of controls,” Singapore said. The new controls will take effect Oct. 1.
U.S. exporters that do not submit to CBP a valid beef certificate number for exports to Uruguay will receive a warning message beginning Aug. 3, according to a July 31 CBP notice. The warning message “is provided to ensure the certificate number submitted with the line information is indeed a valid certificate number,” CBP said. The agency plans to transition from a warning message to a rejection message by November 2019, and will give notice in advance of the change.
The State Department announced sanctions on Anselem Nhamo Sanyatwe, the former commander of the Zimbabwe National Army’s Presidential Guard Brigade and current ambassador of Zimbabwe to Tanzania, the agency said in an Aug. 1 press release. Sanyatwe was sanctioned for a “gross violation of human rights,” the agency said, including a “violent crackdown” against unarmed election protesters in Zimbabwe in 2018 that led to six deaths. The State Department also designated Chido Machona, Sanyatwe’s spouse.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control on Aug. 1 removed more than 40 entries from its Kingpin Act designations, which impose sanctions on international narcotics traffickers. The removals include people based in Colombia, Panama, Guatemala and Mexico.
China is expected to retaliate against President Donald Trump’s announcement on July 31 that the U.S. will be imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods under List 4, according to an Aug. 1 post by Ted Murphy, a Baker McKenzie lawyer. “We expect that China will retaliate … as it has done in the past,” he said.
China said it “strongly opposes” President Donald Trump's decision to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods and it will respond with “necessary measures,” according to an unofficial translation of an Aug. 2 statement from the Ministry of Commerce spokesperson.