The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
Kenya will set up warehouses in Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo to increase exports and fend off competition in its key export markets, according to an Oct. 12 report from The East African. The “elaborate strategy” is expected to smooth challenges that come with “cross-border transportation of goods,” the report said, and give Kenyan companies “easy access” to the Burundi market. Kenya is facing competition from Tanzania, Uganda, China, India and Saudi Arabia for exports to the Rwanda and Burundi markets, the report said.
Singapore signed a free trade deal with the Eurasian Economic Union that will reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers while increasing customs cooperation, “respect for intellectual property rights and e-commerce protocols,” according to an Oct. 17 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The agreement will eliminate or reduce duties on 90 percent of Singapore’s exports to the EAEU -- which includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia -- and will increase to 97 percent “over a 10-year period,” the report said. Duties will be reduced on “mineral fuels, oils and their distillates, prepared foodstuffs, machinery and mechanical equipment, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and precision instruments,” the HKTDC said. The deal will also eliminate tariffs on nearly all exports from EAEU to Singapore, the report said. The two sides also agreed to improved customs procedures, including “24 hours customs clearances, with priority items approved within four hours,” the report said.
China and Mauritius signed a trade deal that will eliminate or reduce tariffs on a range of products and increase “economic cooperation,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in an Oct. 17 press release, according to an unofficial translation. The deal will eliminate certain tariffs, reduce others below 15 percent and will include agreements on rules of origin, trade remedies, technical barriers to trade and "sanitary and phytosanitary issues," China said. The agreement will also expand Chinese exports of steel, tariffs and other “light industrial products” while allowing more sugar imports from Mauritius.
China will impose “stringent new requirements” on export licenses for automobiles and motorcycles in 2020, according to an Oct. 14 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Manufacturers will be required to provide China with a list of “appointed overseas after-sales repair centres, details of the services provided and general details of their overseas after-sales repair service networks and overseas workshops,” the HKTDC said. Manufacturers of “all-terrain vehicles” will need to submit certain “quality management certificates” and copies of “any relevant international certification relating to the importing jurisdiction,” the report said. The documents will be verified by China’s commerce ministry, which may ban certain manufacturers from exporting autos/motorcycles if they submit false or misleading information, the HKTDC said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she's optimistic the administration and trading partners will be able to reach agreement on enforceability that will allow the House to proceed with a vote. Pelosi, speaking at a press conference Oct. 17, said the working group is "making progress every day." She also said that the agreement has to be respectful of global agreements on the environment, and she hopes the provisions on biologics can be resolved to the satisfaction of Democrats. "That's a very big issue in our caucus," she said.
Two stalwart Republican supporters of the president joined with three Democratic senators to say that Congress is united in a push to levy sanctions on Turkey for its invasion of Syria.
Mexican officials presented a letter from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to House Ways & Means Chairman Richard Neal Oct. 17 that he is asking the national legislature and state legislatures to increase what they are spending on labor reform in the coming year, including an additional $18.8 million for federal labor courts, $18 million for local conciliation center, $13.5 million for local labor courts and $10 million for training, public education and verification related to the new contracts. The federal government will provide a property worth $23 million to the new labor center, he said,
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control renewed a general license that authorizes certain transactions with Nynas AB, a joint venture between biofuel producer Neste and Petroleos de Venezuela, Venezuela's state-run oil company. General License No. 13D, which replaces No. 13C, authorizes transactions with Nynas AB and any of its subsidiaries until April 14, 2020. The license was scheduled to expire Oct. 25.
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson will take a second European Union exit deal to the U.K. Parliament on Oct. 19, after coming to new terms with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on an agreement on Brexit. Under the deal, Northern Ireland will formally remain part of the U.K. customs territory, but will also be an entry point into the EU customs zone with no tariffs on goods entering from Ireland and a vote in four years on whether to keep the arrangement in place, according to a BBC report.