The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of the filing of the following agreements under the Shipping Act of 1984. Interested parties may submit comments on the agreement by email to Secretary@fmc.gov, or by mail to the Secretary, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, DC 20573, within 12 days of publication in the Federal Register, that is, by April 1.

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

In the March 20 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

There seems to be some confusion over whether Authorized Economic Operator trusted trader status will continue to offer the same benefits to United Kingdom participants after March 29 if there's a no-deal Brexit, the BBC said in a March 19 report. While some have emphasized that AEO status could ease trade frictions after Brexit, the European Commission said in a notice last year that AEO authorizations from the U.K. would no longer be considered valid in the EU after Brexit. There's been an increase in U.K. AEO applications in recent months, but the U.K. is now urging companies to take part in the U.K.'s Transitional Simplified Procedures instead, the BBC said. "AEO status will only suit traders that regularly interact with customs and carry out high volumes of customs transactions," an HM Revenue and Customs spokesman told the BBC. "For most UK firms TSP will be the most practical system to import into the UK from the EU if we leave without a deal."

The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of March 20 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

At a recent Beijing trade conference, Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Ren Hongbin said that the country plans to “enhance the quality of foreign trade” to steer out of China’s “complicated and severe” trade environment, according to a March 19 press release from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. Ren introduced a broad 10-step plan to achieve this, according to the release, which includes expanding imports, promoting “high quality development of foreign trade” and increasing “structural reform of foreign trade.” Ren also suggested supporting and exploring “new modes of trade,” such as “cross-border e-commerce.”

India will delay its ban on all scrap plastic imports for at least five months, moving the ban’s start date to the end of August, according to a report from the website Resource Recycling. The plastic ban was originally announced on March 6, the report said, as India cited environmental concerns and hoped to boost domestic production. A memo from India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said that the reason for the delay was “to ensure smooth compliance,” the report said. The ban ends previous exemptions that allowed plastic imports by Indian business in “certain designated economic development districts,” the report said. The U.S. exported 294 million pounds of scrap plastic to India last year, according to the report, composing about 12 percent of the U.S.’s total plastic scrap exports.

The Department of Homeland Security is pouring more resources into export enforcement with a new task force headquartered in Detroit, a CBP official said. Officials are calling the enforcement body a Global Trade Task Force: a DHS-led effort with cooperation from several other customs agencies, including CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The task force, which launched in February, will use resources from multiple customs agencies to further tighten vulnerabilities in the commerce stream, said CBP Director of Field Operations Christopher Perry. “Each agency has unique capabilities and authorities,” Perry said. “By leveraging these capabilities, it helps us act as force multiplier.”

Testing for the State Department’s new system for commodity jurisdiction (CJ) requests began March 20, according to a recent post on the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls website. “The application incorporates the existing web-based system into the updated [Defense Export Control and Compliance System] platform, while maintaining user ability to submit CJ requests electronically. The system will be open through March 26th to collect user feedback,” DDTC said. Questions may be directed to the IT Modernization Team at PM_DDTCProjectTeam@state.gov, DDTC said.

Mexico is preparing an overhaul of its customs procedures and port infrastructure, according to recent reports. At an event at the Port of Manzanillo, Mexican General Administrator of Customs Ricardo Peralta Saucedo said he is preparing a new National Customs Strategy for presentation to the Mexican Cabinet and President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador that will set forth changes to customs operations to facilitate trade, said a March 19 report in the Mexican logistics news site T21. Other officials at the event also announced port modernization initiatives.