China’s Administration of Customs is expanding a campaign to combat solid waste smuggling, according to an April 12 press release, including “deepening law-enforcement cooperation with foreign countries” and “market regulation authorities.” The announcement comes less than a month after China Customs said it seized more than 300,000 tons of smuggled imported trash from a scheme that involved 22 smuggling groups (see 1903250021).

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four companies and nine ships associated with transporting oil to and from Venezuela in another effort to isolate the Nicolas Maduro regime, OFAC said in an April 12 notice. OFAC said the companies used the oil tankers to deliver oil from Venezuela to Cuba between January and March. Six of the ships were linked to PB Tankers S.P.A., based in Italy. One each was linked to Liberia-based companies Jennifer Navigation Limited, Large Range Limited and Lima Shipping Corporation. The notice includes the maritime identification numbers and names of the ships owned by PB Tankers: Silver Point, Alba Marina, Gold Point, Ice Point, Indian Point and Iron Point. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said OFAC will continue to target companies that transport Venezuelan oil to Cuba, as they “are profiting while the Maduro regime pillages natural resources.”

It is unclear how China will enforce some of the regulations introduced in its new e-commerce law, according to an April 7 report published by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, leaving some foreign companies and small businesses uncertain about selling products to China online. Some foreign department stores that previously shipped online sales directly to China have already switched to large Chinese e-commerce platforms that import through a Chinese distributor, according to the report. Others, the report said, “have pulled out of the Chinese market entirely.”

Kevin McAleenan assumed the role of acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security on April 10, DHS said in an April 10 news release. On April 11, McAleenan said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator David Pekoske was designated "senior official performing the duties of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Deputy Secretary." DHS has not said who will take over for McAleenan as CBP commissioner.

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs issued a policy paper April 11 intended to clarify the claiming of “input tax” value-added tax deductions for imported goods. “HMRC is aware of incorrect treatment by businesses whereby import VAT has been incorrectly deducted as input tax by non-owners of the goods,” the agency said. One situation in which this has presented itself is when businesses sell goods before importing them into the U.K. and pass title on to the new owner, but still act as importer of record and pay the import VAT. “The correct procedure is for the new owner of the goods to be the importer of record and reclaim the import VAT on the [import VAT certificate] C79 and not the previous owner,” HMRC said. Beginning July 15, HMRC will only allow claims for the “input tax” using the correct procedures, it said. As previous guidance was not clear on the correct procedure, HMRC “will not pursue historical VAT deduction where the VAT could have been recovered in full by the owner of the goods at the time of importation as long as there is no risk of duplicated claims,” it said.

Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:

The Mexico Secretariat of Economy issued two notices April 10 amending the Mexican tariff schedule and making related changes to the PROSEC sectoral promotion and IMMEX maquiladora programs. Notably, the notices reverse tariff cuts previously implemented for footwear, textiles and apparel in February. The changes were detailed in two circulars issued by the Mexican Confederation of Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM) the following day and posted by Mexican consultancy AJR Foreign Trade.

The Canada Border Services Agency said maintenance outages are scheduled for the eManifest Portal, the Electronic Data Interchange and the CCS/CADEX system. There will be multiple outages to those systems on April 13 and 14, CBSA said in an emailed message.

Vietnam is implementing a customs bonding system, and hopes to run a pilot in 2021 and 2022 before its “customs guarantees” are expanded to more customs processes, the Vietnam Customs Department's CustomsNews website reported on April 11. The pilot phase will apply the bonding system to transit goods, temporary imports for re-export, late submissions of certificates of origin and “transportation of goods for preservation,” CustomsNews said. Then, in 2022 and 2023, Vietnam customs will expand implementation to goods temporarily imported for exhibitions, repairs, warranty or construction; delays in the issuance of import permits; and disputes between Vietnam customs and companies, such when an importer is waiting for a valuation or classification ruling, the report said.