The U.S. consumer technology sector exported $172.4 billion worth of goods in 2017, said a PricewaterhouseCoopers economic-impact report commissioned by the Consumer Technology Association. PwC, using the Census Bureau’s “origin of movement” (OM) data, estimated Texas was the top export state with shipments of $44.8 billion, followed by California ($35.7 billion) and Florida ($12.3 billion). Canada was the top market for U.S. consumer tech sector goods, followed by the Netherlands and Germany, it said. There are “limitations” to using OM data for the analysis, the report said. One is that it doesn’t cover services exports, another is that its focus is on “the transportation origin of exports, as opposed to the production origin,” it said. This runs the risk it will “misallocate credit for certain exported goods to states where there are major export hubs,” it said. “However, we are not aware of another data set that provides better visibility” into state- and product-specific “trade flows,” it said.

The Plastics Industry Association added Bradley Hoppe, previously a marketing specialist in export finance at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service's Office of Trade Programs, as director of global packaging regulations, the group said in a news release. Hoppe will "lead the association’s regulatory and advocacy programs and projects that relate to the safety of plastic packaging," it said.

In the April 29 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

It's unclear how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got the armored Mercedes-Maybach limousines made by Daimler that Kim used for several recent meetings with international leaders, a spokesman for the company said. In an April 29 email, a Daimler spokesman said the company has a “comprehensive export control process” to “prevent” all sales to North Korea. “We have no indication how those vehicles have come to the use of” North Korea, he said. Exports of luxury goods to North Korea are banned under United Nations sanctions, and sanctions imposed by the U.S. allow the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to designate any person who “engages in a significant export to or import from North Korea,” according to the Treasury.

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

The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of April 29 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau met with Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe on April 28 and discussed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), according to a news release from Trudeau's office. "There has been a significant increase in demand for Canadian products since the CPTPP came into force," it said. "For example, some Canadian beef products exported to Japan have increased nearly threefold." Also, the two leaders signed a Memorandum of Cooperation that "will make it easier for Canadian and Japanese companies to work in partnership, and will drive investment in both our countries." Jim Carr, minister of international trade diversification, said: "Our close economic ties with Japan have never been stronger thanks in large part to our new trade deal with Asia and Pacific countries -- and our government is strengthening those ties even further. That’s why we’re adding trade commissioners right across Canada, and putting new trade commissioners in three major Japanese cities to help our businesses and economy grow."

Brazil recently announced changes to its special customs regimes for the oil and gas industry, according to an alert from EY. In a notice published April 5, the Receita Federal do Brasil (RFB) amended its “normative instructions” on the Repetro and Repetro-Sped programs related to how imports and temporary imports qualify for the program, what goods may qualify, the circumstances under which the regimes may not be used and application requirements.

A new Indonesian regulation requiring fresh fruit and produce to be registered with the country’s Ministry of Agriculture “could potentially be another significant non-tariff barrier to marketing U.S. fruit and nuts in Indonesia,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service said in an April 15 report. Issued in January, the regulation requires that Indonesian importers and distributors must register their products and put in place a traceability system. It also sets new labeling requirements for fruits and vegetables. “It is unclear exactly what products will be subject to this new regulation and how it will be implemented,” USDA said. The report includes a translation of the new regulation.

Soybeans, peas and pork are now seeing new barriers to importation into China, Reuters reported on April 29. The rejections and delays of those products follow an ongoing dispute over imports of Canadian canola (see 1904170029). "Now traders say Canadian soybeans and peas face unusual obstacles," Reuters reported. "Ottawa also warned last week that China was holding up pork shipments over paperwork issues."