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.

If the Iran nuclear deal collapses and Europe imposes a set of automatic snapback sanctions, the U.S. would likely follow with its own set of additional Iran sanctions, including greater enforcement on non-U.S. entities and sanctions on Iran’s trading partners, said Inessa Owens, a trade lawyer with Baker McKenzie.

The Commerce Department will continue its presumption of denial policy for license applications for exports to Huawei, a Commerce spokesperson said July 3, adding that the China tech company remains on Commerce’s Entity List. Commerce will review export license applications for “their national security impacts” and plans to review licenses “under the highest national security scrutiny,” the spokesperson said.

E2open finalized its acquisition of Amber Road, the company said in a July 2 news release. The companies announced the deal in May (see 1905130057). "The combination of E2open and Amber Road brings together two complementary platforms to create a premier global trade management network solution, enhancing customers’ ability to operate their entire end-to-end supply chains from one place in the cloud," E2open said.

The World Trade Organization published on July 2 its update to tariff and non-tariff measures imposed by more than 170 countries and customs territories. The publication also provides statistics about exports. For example, the European Union is the top destination for American industrial exports, and 22 percent of those exports are duty free. Those exports account for two-thirds of the value of exports from the U.S. to the EU. Japan is the fourth-largest export market for U.S. agriculture, and the average Most Favored Nation tariff for those exports is 23 percent. About two-thirds of ag exports to Japan from the U.S. face duties.