The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing new reporting requirements for seven chemicals under significant new use rules. The proposed SNURs would require notification to EPA at least 90 days in advance of a new use by importers, manufacturers or processors. Importers of chemicals subject to these proposed SNURs would need to certify their compliance with the SNUR requirements should these proposed rules be finalized, EPA said. Exporters of these chemicals would become subject to export notification requirements. Comments on the proposed SNURs are due Nov. 7.

The U.S. and Japan officially signed their initial trade deal during a brief signing ceremony at the White House on Oct. 7, setting up a potential Jan. 1 effective date. The text of the new deal is now posted to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's website. So is the text of a concurrent deal on digital trade.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security added 28 entities to its Entity List for their involvement in human rights violations of China’s Uighur population, BIS said Oct. 7. The entities include Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region People’s Government Public Security Bureau, 18 of its subsidiaries and eight China-based technology and science companies, including Hikvision, a major supplier of video surveillance products. The announcement takes effect Oct. 9.

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

In the Oct. 4 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom and Tunisia signed a trade continuity agreement Oct. 4 to ensure the countries can trade under current terms after a potential no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31, the U.K. Department for International Trade said in a press release. The agreement would continue "tariff-free trade of industrial products together with liberalisation of trade in agricultural, agri-food and fisheries products," the UKDIT said. The deal would continue trade after Brexit on the terms of the association agreement currently in place between the European Union and Tunisia.

Italy is making several amendments to its value-added tax regulations, including a “mandatory check” on the customer’s VAT identification number, KPMG said in an Oct. 4 post. The changes also include “increased legal certainty and harmonized application of VAT rules” for VAT treatment of “chain transactions” and modified VAT rules for “call-off stock arrangements” between VAT-registered businesses in European Union member states, the post said. Before the regulations take effect Jan. 1, 2020, companies should verify that their customers have valid VAT identification numbers and validate “current procedures for collecting and retaining documentary evidence of intra-EU transports of goods,” KPMG said.

The European Union on Oct. 4 published a directive outlining procedures for the movement of certain foods and feeds, plants and animals from ports of entry to their destination within the EU. The new directive replaces rules set in the 1990s that were repealed by an overhaul of the EU’s border control scheme in 2017, effective in December 2019. Under the new procedures, border authorities may only authorize the transport of a shipment to the establishment at the place of destination indicated in the Common Health Entry Document associated with the shipment. The operator responsible for the establishment at the place of destination must notify the relevant inspection authority within one day of the shipment’s arrival at its destination. A lack of notification within 15 days of authorization of transport will cause an official investigation, which may result in enforcement action against the operator responsible for the consignment. The directive takes effect Dec. 14.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Oct. 4 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The Canada Border Services Agency plans to again push back the sunset date for legacy release options as part of the Single Window Initiative and Integrated Import Declaration transition, the agency said in an Oct. 2 email. "Due to the delay in issuing the Single Window Initiative (SWI), Integrated Import Declaration (IID) ECCRD Addendum, the deadline to sunset the legacy Other Government Department (OGD) release service options (OGD PARS and OGD RMD) will be extended to April 1, 2020," the agency said. "The SWI IID ECCRD Addendum includes the necessary functionality that will enable TCPs to be able to process co-regulated shipments, and, as such decommissioning cannot occur until this functionality has been implemented." The CBSA released the addendum document on Oct. 2.