India now prohibits exports of antiviral medication Remdesivir, used to shorten COVID-19 recovery times, along with the drug's active pharmaceutical ingredients, effective with an April 11 trade notice. The products are under Indian Trade Classification Harmonized System Codes Ex 293499 and Ex 300490.
Vietnam has added eight new terminals along the country's coastline, bringing its total to 286, CustomsNews, the Vietnam Customs agency's mouthpiece, reported April 12. Four of the new terminals are located at the Vung Tau Port in Southern Vietnam. Hai Phong, Khanh Hoa, Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City each added one terminal.
India recently amended standards for a range of food and agricultural products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service reported April 9. The amendments, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2022, will affect certain fruit, grains, flours, cereals and egg products, USDA said. The measures also include “major revisions” to standards for certain “substances added to foods,” including trehalose, tocopherols and other “food processing aids and enzymes.”
The U.S. placement of seven Chinese supercomputing entities on the entity list (see 2104080011) is an attempt to “unscrupulously and maliciously suppress Chinese high-tech companies,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said April 9 during a regular press conference, according to a transcript provided. The spokesperson decried the placement as driven by U.S. “desire to maintain” its scientific edge over China and an abuse of the “national security concept.” Despite these punitive measures to development, China said, it has become a tech innovator in the field of supercomputing due to its “independent innovation.” The spokesperson said the U.S. measures will only make China more determined to innovate in this field. The comments were in response to a question from a Bloomberg reporter, according to the transcript.
A 24-hour, one-stop digital logistics service for Indonesia's Batam Island that delivers streamlined trading procedures and serves as a digital hub for port services is now live, Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported April 8. The logistics hub will also be used for import/export permit applications and document submissions for trade on the island. The move is meant to bolster the ease of trade and spur investment in the Riau Islands, the home province of Batam, which lacks the efficiencies of nearby Singapore, HKTDC said. The new service will be delivered via the country’s existing National Logistics Ecosystem platform, which was set up to deliver streamlined, integrated trading procedures, while also acting as a digital hub for the described services.
India's state-run oil refiners are preparing to buy Iranian crude oil due to expectations that the new U.S. administration will ease sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation, according to a senior oil ministry representative, Bloomberg reported April 8. Indian refiners are making preparations so that purchasing contracts can be quickly executed when sanctions are lifted. Preparations include drafting commercial terms and enacting a system to quickly assess crude quality, the outlet reported. The desire for Iranian oil comes from India's dissatisfaction about the prices of oil from Saudi Arabia. Indian refiners have been buying oil from Guyana and Norway while also importing more from the U.S. India imports more than 85% of its total oil, Bloomberg said.
China's General Administration of Customs has banned the import of cloven-hoofed animals and their products from Mauritius due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease on the island, the agency announced in an April 6 notice, according to an unofficial translation. The World Organization for Animal Health identified the outbreak March 27 on a farm in Rodrigues, Mauritius.
Sri Lanka on April 5 announced an import ban on palm oil, a commodity that environmentalists say leads to deforestation. The ban took “immediate effect,” Sri Lanka said. Its customs authorities will no longer clear cargo containing palm oil. The country also banned domestic cultivation of palm oil. “When this is fully operational, the government intends to stop the cultivation of oil palm and the consumption of palm oil completely,” the release said.
Japan Customs released guidance April 6 on how the agency calculates import customs values. The question-and-answer procedural update document addresses common queries, such as the methods used to calculate customs values, such as the deductive value method and the computed value method.
Japan extended its ban on all trading activity with North Korea until April 13, 2023, the Trade Ministry announced in an April 6 news release. The extension bars all imports and exports to and from North Korea unless given approval by the trade minister.