The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs is expanding the access and breadth of Transitional Simplified Procedures that will be put into place if the U.K. leaves the European Union with no transition deal, as is currently set to happen April 11. TSP will now be available at all U.K. ports if the U.K. leaves without a deal (instead of just roll-on, roll-off ports), and will give importers a longer grace period before they have to begin filing customs declarations and paying duties for goods from the EU, HMRC said in a March 22 press release.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the State Department and the U.S. Coast Guard issued an update to its maritime petroleum shipping advisory to warn of deceptive shipping practices by Syria and highlight sanctions risks U.S. companies may face if trading with Syria or Iran. The update, a 10-page report that includes lists of ships that have “engaged in sanctionable conduct,” is aimed at “shipping companies, vessel owners, managers, operators, insurers, and financial institutions” who may face “significant U.S. sanctions risks.”
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned a Venezuelan state-run bank and five related entities, OFAC said in a March 22 notice, increasing pressure on the Nicolas Maduro-led regime in potentially the most impactful move against the country since January, when the U.S. sanctioned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A, the country's state-run oil company.
The World Customs Organization issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
In the March 22 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
A recently adopted EU directive on unfair practices in the food trade will allow U.S. exporters to benefit while adding some compliance requirements, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report. The directive, which was adopted March 12, "forbids certain commercial practices such as late payments for perishable food products or last minute order cancellations," USDA said. "U.S. companies exporting food and agricultural
products to the EU are eligible to benefit from the Directive’s safeguards; U.S. companies will also have to comply with the same rules as European companies, e.g., the Directive forbids unilateral contract changes for perishable goods," USDA said.
Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development recently held a workshop on the use of blockchain technology for supply chain traceability in the textiles and apparel sector, it said in a press release. That comes as part of the early stages of a pilot program to examine the advantages of blockchain, including for certification to consumers of the provenance of textiles and apparel, anti-counterfeiting efforts, and to guarantee the social and environmental sustainability of “Made in Italy” goods, the ministry said. The pilot will include an exploration and design phase, with private industry included in discussions, and will end with a study on the results of the exercise. Among initiatives included in a presentation from the workshop were the tracing of raw cotton and the tracking of products from a luxury goods maker.
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 March 22 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Importers in Mexico that use the Secretary of Economy’s “PROSEC” sectoral promotion program must file annual reports in April or risk losing their benefits under the program, said Mexican law firm Consorcio Juridico Aduanero in a bulletin sent by email March 19. Importers that don’t submit the report, which includes data on national and export sales, will be included on a list of importers published by the Secretary of Economy for which PROSEC import benefits are suspended for the month of May, CJ Aduanero said. If the report is not submitted by the last day of June, the Secretary of Economy will permanently end the importer’s participation in the program.