China's Ministry of Commerce is imposing import duties on Australian wines following an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation, it said in a March 26 news release, according to an unofficial translation. Beginning March 28, the antidumping duty on Australian wines in containers of two liters or less will be 116.2%-218.4% for each company subject to the investigation. The agency determined the dumping margin for the wines to be 116.2%-218.4% and the subsidy margin provided by the Australian government to be 6.3%-6.4%. The new antidumping duty rate is significantly higher than the preliminary countervailing duty rate China set in December (see 2012100016). The agency decided not to impose countervailing duties for the subsidies “in order to avoid double taxation,” the release said.
China's customs agency published the quarantine and hygiene requirements for imported Czech compound feed and Polish forage dairy products, according to an unofficial translation of two separate notices released on March 18. The imports will require compliance with China's and Poland's and the Czech Republic's hygiene requirements, including an absence of epidemics of foot-and-mouth disease, rinderpest and bovine nodular eruption, among other diseases.
India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade switched, effective March 22, to a new online module for filing of electronic applications for import authorizations of restricted goods, it said in a March 23 trade notice. The DGFT Udyog Bhawan office in New Delhi will issue restricted item import authorization. All pending applications have been moved to the new module and any pre-March 22 import request seeking revalidation or amendment may be submitted directly to the relevant regional authority of DGFT.
A 55-year-old man has been extradited to the U.S. from Malaysia, making him the first North Korean national to be brought to the states to face a criminal charge, the Department of Justice announced in a March 22 news release. Mun Chol Myong, a North Korean businessman, is charged with laundering money through the U.S. financial system to provide luxury items to North Korea. Mun allegedly defrauded U.S. banks for years and violated sanctions on the oppressive North Korean regime in amounts exceeding $1.5 million, according to recently unsealed court documents. He also was allegedly affiliated with the Reconnaissance Geneal Bureau, North Korea's chief intelligence organization. He made his first appearance March 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, where he had been indicted May 2, 2019, on six counts of money laundering. Mun was arrested in Malaysia May 14, 2019.
In its 2021 budget, Singapore floated changes to its goods and services tax that would extend the overseas vendor registration requirement for imports of low-value goods and non-digital services, according to a KMPG report. Under current law, GST exemptions are awarded to low-value goods of no more than $400 (in Singapore dollars) imported by air or post and the overseas vendor registration regime applies only to digital services. In the proposed budgetary changes, set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2023, overseas vendor registration rules would be extended to all low-value goods imports by air or post valued under S$400 along with business-to-consumer imported non-digital services. Under the latter provision, any supplier outside Singapore that has global revenue greater than S$1 million in the prior 12 months will be required to register and account for GST.
Zhao Kun, the director of Maxtech Plus and sole proprietor of VAM International Group, was sentenced to five weeks in prison and a $275,860 fine for evasion of Goods and Services Tax payments and falsifying documents sent to Singapore Customs, the customs agency announced in a March 22 news release. Between 2016 and 2018, Zhao, a permanent resident of Singapore, under-declared the value of his company's imports, evading GST payments of about $64,200. He pleaded guilty to five charges of fraudulent evasion of GST and providing false information. Zhao also falsified 95 delivery orders and 29 purchase orders submitted as part of a Singapore Customs audit in December 2016, in violation of the Customs Act. He provided, or caused to be provided, more falsified documents in May and October 2017 when questioned by customs officials.
China is restricting the use of Tesla vehicles by its military and certain state-owned companies, expressing a worry over the vehicles' collection of data, people familiar with the decision said, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal March 19. The move mirrors similar action taken by the U.S. to ban Huawei from its telecommunications infrastructure over national security concerns. While Tesla did not comment on China's move, it referred to its earlier statement to Chinese media in response to data security concerns: “Tesla’s privacy protection policy complies with Chinese laws and regulations. Tesla attaches great importance to the protection of users’ privacy.”
Applicants seeking to import denatured ethyl alcohol (DEA) into India must now provide additional documents about their product, the Director General of Foreign Trade announced in a March 16 notice. The information includes the past five years of imports and usage pattern of the DEA, quantity available at the plant site by volume and weight, complete step-wise production process, approved installed capacity of the finished products at the plant site, and a valid environmental clearance for each of the products being manufactured at the plant site. The notice said that the new information requirements will expedite the process for import authorization.
India's Director General of Foreign Trade will allow The Plastic Export Promotion Council to authorize Certificates of Origin (Non-Preferential), the agency announced in a March 17 trade notice.
India set a Dec. 31 deadline for filing claims under Rebate of State Levies. That deadline applies to applications containing shipping bills with Let Export Order dates before Oct. 1, 2017, the Director General of Foreign Trade announced in a March 17 trade notice.