President Donald Trump said the U.S. did not agree to lift tariffs on China as part of the first phase of the trade deal, contradicting comments from China’s commerce ministry. “They'd like to have a rollback,” Trump told reporters Nov. 8. “I haven't agreed to anything,”

The Trump administration completed its review of its final rule to move export controls of firearms from the State Department to the Commerce Department, clearing the way for the regulatory changes to potentially be completed this year.

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

Singapore Customs fined a man more than $72,000 for suppressing the import values of cell phone parts in an attempt to avoid import taxes, Singapore said in a Nov. 6 press release. Jimmy Ong, a partner of Quality Comm LP, a mobile phone repair company, was charged with 48 counts of fraudulent evasion of Singapore’s Goods and Services Tax, the press release said. He pleaded guilty to 16 of the charges. Singapore Customs discovered the scheme in 2018 when they inspected boxes consigned to Ong at the Changi Airfreight Centre, the agency said. Authorities said Ong falsified the value of the goods by labeling the 542 phone parts as worth less than $400 when they were actually worth almost $8,000. Ong imported the parts from Chinese suppliers 48 times between 2015 and 2018, Singapore said, resulting in more than $14,000 worth of evaded import taxes.

Cambodia recently extended its online certificate-of-origin system to three additional border provinces on a pilot basis, according to a Nov. 7 Hong Kong Trade Development Council report. The system was extended to Koh Kong, which borders Thailand, and Takeo and Kampot, which border Vietnam, the report said. The system allows businesses to apply and print a certificate of origin online through their local commerce department, HKTDC said, and is already in place for at least 10 other provinces.

China recently clarified upcoming procedures for obtaining export value-added tax refunds, according to a Nov. 7 post from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. China specified that general VAT taxpayers may claim tax credits or export VAT refunds through the online “VAT invoice confirmation platform of their home province,” the report said. VAT payers with a Customs Bill of Payment “with information relating to multiple VAT payers” should first upload all documentation “for verification by the tax authorities," HKTDC said. The procedures are scheduled to take effect Feb. 1, 2020.

CBP officers at the Port of Wilmington, Delaware, seized a 2016 Range Rover that was being exported to Nigeria, due to undervaluation, the agency said in a news release. "Officers initially inspected the Range Rover October 29, which the New Jersey exporter valued at $13,000," CBP said. "A fair assessment of the vehicle is about $55,000." False export declarations can result in civil penalties, forfeiture and/or criminal charges, CBP said. “Export examinations are a critical component of Customs and Border Protection’s trade enforcement and border security missions,” said Casey Durst, director of field operations for CBP’s Baltimore Field Office. “CBP officers remain committed to intercepting these nefarious practices that deliberately circumvent our nation’s laws for financial gain.”

The U.S. will soon start discussions with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations about a possible connection between ASEAN's customs filing platform with the U.S. platform, the State Department said in a Nov. 3 fact sheet about "Expanding the Enduring Partnership" with ASEAN. "The United States and the ASEAN Secretariat announced the opening of negotiations to link the ASEAN 'Single Window' with the U.S. Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) System, which governs all trade in goods entering the United States," State said. "Making this link will further facilitate $272 billion in two-way trade in goods between the United States and ASEAN."

NEW YORK -- The U.S. and China are intertwined, and revealing how deeply that is true is the silver lining of the trade war, according to Dr. Huiyao Wang, president for Center for China and Globalization, a Chinese think tank. Wang said the West mischaracterizes forced technology transfer, intellectual property theft and favoritism toward Chinese companies within China. He said that the American Chamber of Commerce in China is pleased about how the new IP protection law is going to be implemented, and he asked if forced technology transfer is such a burden, why don't you hear companies publicly complaining about it.

The Census Bureau posted the latest versions of the Schedule B and Harmonized Tariff Schedule tables on its website, the agency said by email. There were no additions to the Schedule B, Census said. "The ACE AESDirect program has been updated with the new HTS codes," it said.