The U.S.’s decision to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and rescind Iranian sanctions would be complex and time-consuming, likely taking months of bureaucratic work and negotiations, sanctions and Iran experts said. The new President Joe Biden administration has a range of Iranian-related sanctions issues to tackle before rejoining the agreement, the experts said, such as which Iranian entities and officials to de-list, whether to endorse Europe’s INSTEX and how to address humanitarian exports to Iran.
Turkey recently updated its import tariffs for certain nuts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service reported Jan. 22. The country raised duties on in-shell and shelled walnuts to 15% for all origins, excluding countries with which Turkey has a free trade deal. FAS also said Turkey imposes an additional 10% duty on tree nuts imported from the U.S. in retaliation for U.S. tariffs on Turkish steel.
Qatar is expected to announce a broad 5% value-added tax rate on sales in goods this year, KPMG said Jan. 26. All people and entities doing business in Qatar will need to register for VAT purposes. The country is expected to soon release a set of rules and regulations to describe how the VAT will be applied, KPMG said in a separate January report.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will host a virtual trade event for U.S. sweets and snack exporters looking to expand sales to Latin America, the agency said in a Jan. 25 news release. The April 20-21 online event will provide U.S. exporters information about trade conditions and market access in several Central American countries -- including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama -- and connect exporters with buyers. Applications for the event are due Feb. 8.
Hundreds of containers of imported frozen fish are being held up in China due to coronavirus protocols, causing a shortage of electric outlets to refrigerate containers, according to a Jan. 26 report from Bloomberg. Authorities are required to test the fish for coronavirus before allowing them to clear customs, causing a cargo pileup in Dalian, a major Chinese seafood port, that could impact frozen food shipments across the country, the report said. The outlet and space shortage is causing shipping liners to cancel new reefer bookings into Dalian, the report said, as frozen food containers are being diverted to other Chinese ports. The container congestion is also beginning to impact other refrigerated items, Bloomberg said, including fruits and dumplings. The Chinese embassy didn’t comment.
Dozens of agriculture trade groups wrote to Senate Finance Committee leaders urging them to confirm Katherine Tai, the administration's nominee for U.S. trade representative. The letter, dated Jan. 26, said, “Ms. Tai is eminently qualified and deeply familiar with the mission of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in opening foreign markets and reducing barriers for U.S. food and agriculture workers and exporters for the benefit of consumers in the U.S. and across the globe. We especially value Ms. Tai’s demonstrated ability to build bipartisan support for trade policies.”
The European Union wants to work with America on ways to develop Artificial Intelligence standards, design a carbon adjustment border mechanism and stockpile medicines and personal protective gear in a way that lessens dependency on certain Asian countries, its ambassador to the U.S. said on a webinar hosted by the European American Chamber of Commerce
More than 70 trade groups from Europe and the U.S. asked President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to remove or suspend tariffs on goods outside of aerospace and steel and aluminum that have been targets in those trade disputes. “Suspending these tariffs is urgently needed to address the economic harms our industries are currently facing and will also be a positive step to help re-establish a cooperative Trans Atlantic trading relationship,” they wrote in a Jan. 25 letter. COVID-19-related shutdowns made 2020 a tough year for business, they said, and “the ongoing EU-U.S. trade disputes and additional tariffs which continue to plague Trans-Atlantic trade have made a bad situation worse.” Signers include food, wine and spirits interests on both sides of the Atlantic; European tool, cosmetics and perfume industries; and a broad array of U.S. trade groups, among them the American Chemistry Council, the National Retail Federation, the American Apparel and Footwear Association, and the American Association of Port Authorities.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control extended a general license authorizing certain transactions involving securities of companies that “closely” match the name of a company identified as a Chinese military company (see 2011130026), a Jan. 27 notice said. General License No. 1A, which replaced General License No. 1 (see 2101120026), authorizes the transactions through 9:30 a.m. EDT May 27 and past the original expiration date of Jan. 28. OFAC also added language to the license to specify that it does not authorize transactions with securities of entities listed on OFAC’s Non-Specially Designated Nationals Communist Chinese Military Companies List or Defense Department-issued lists (see 2101150006). The agency updated frequently asked questions 878 and 879 to reflect the change.
As the European Union's vaccination effort lags behind other developed nations', the bloc threatens to implement export controls on vaccines made inside the EU to increase the number of doses available for its citizens. “In the future, all companies producing vaccines against COVID-19 in the EU will have to provide early notification whenever they want to export vaccines to third countries,” European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides said in a news release Jan. 25.