In the April 11 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted (see 1904120033 for notices from April 12):
The European Commission created a list of about $20 billion in U.S. imports that it could raise duties on, according to an April 12 report from Reuters. The potential tariffs stem from a World Trade Organization dispute between the U.S. and the European Union over aircraft subsidies given Boeing. The U.S. had previously identified $11 billion in European imports that could be targets of retaliatory tariffs if the World Trade Organization authorizes that level of compensation in a similar WTO dispute over subsidies for Airbus (see 1904090057).
The European Council approved a negotiating mandate for trade talks with the U.S., but says it will not finish a free-trade agreement until the steel and aluminum tariffs on its member countries are lifted. The mandate, which was approved April 15, excludes agricultural trade from the talks.
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 15 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Canada is moving closer to new regulations that would create some new restrictions on transactions involving controlled goods moving to other countries, law firm McCarthy Tetrault said in a blog post. The proposed regulations "create a new control regime for Canadians engaged in 'brokering' related to transactions involving the movement of certain controlled goods, services or technology from one foreign country to another," the firm said. "This is the first time Canada has imposed such controls and companies that may be potentially involved in such transactions."
New digital Mercado Comun del Sur (MERCOSUR) certificates of origin will take effect May 1 in Argentina, according to an alert from Expeditors. Use of digital certificates had been set to take effect in November 2018, but was subsequently delayed twice, until March 1, then until May 1. The Argentine Ministry of Economy said the digital certificates “will have the same legal validity and identical value as those issued on paper,” and must be electronically signed according to parameters established by the Latin American Integration Association. The Ministry also said that “entities authorized to the exporter must” keep records of all certificates of origin, the certification number, the applicant and the date of issue. The notice said paper certificates may still be used for “certain occasions in which digital certification is not possible in order not to delay or hinder foreign trade operations.”
A company based in Vietnam was accused by the country’s customs department's anti-smuggling unit of falsifying import permits and smuggling medical products, the Vietnam Customs Department's CustomsNews website said in an April 15 report. The company, C.V.S One Member Limited Liability Company, allegedly “heavily modified” import permits in at least 18 customs declarations between 2009 and 2016, including changing the model, term and number of the item in the permit’s appendix. The company’s “director ... admitted to falsifying import licenses,” the report said, and the investigation has been handed to Vietnamese police.
India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed to strengthen “maritime cooperation” and improve “connectivity” at the 21st ASEAN-India Senior Officials' Meeting April 11-12 in New Delhi, according to an announcement from India’s Ministry of External Affairs. At the meeting, both India and ASEAN “voiced their determination to bolster bilateral ties,” according to a report from the Vietnam Customs Department's CustomsNews website. The change was first suggested during the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in 2018, the report said, when the two sides also promised to strengthen trade and the ASEAN-India Free Trade Area, according to a post-report from that summit.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned seven individuals and three entities that move money in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, because they were supporting terrorism and serving as “financial facilitators” for ISIS, according to an April 15 press release from OFAC. Six of the individuals and one of the entities are part of the Rawi Network, which, the U.S. says, helped ISIS government officials launder the money from selling Iraqi oil when they controlled territory there, as well as distributing donations to ISIS through an informal money transfer system known as hawala.