Chinese regulators are considering a new tax on light-cycle oil imports, a low-quality petroleum input that's blended into diesel and fuel oil, Bloomberg reported March 17. The Chinese government asked for feedback from energy companies on a draft plan and could be ready to implement the tax as soon as the first half of 2021, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the discussions. Currently, LCO imports are exempt from China's fuel consumption tax. Demand for LCO imports skyrocketed in 2020 as China ramped up infrastructure projects to stimulate its COVID-ravaged economy, bringing most of the LCO in from South Korea, the report said.

Australia this week launched a series of online export tools that it said will help Australian exporters better access foreign markets, a March 17 news release said. The tools provide exporters with information on the “market potential” for their products and “opportunities and challenges in your chosen market,” said Dianne Tipping, the chair of the Export Council of Australia. The country said the tools will give agricultural exporters “insights on top-performing markets to inform their trade and diversification strategies.”

Due to recent detection of cases in which freight forwarders or declaring agents declared and paid lower values on Goods & Services Tax amounts, without the importers being aware of it, Singapore Customs is encouraging all traders to sign up for the Trader Notification Service, a March 15 notice said. The notification service provides traders with updates on the permit number, name of declaring agent and “permit approval date when a permit with the trader's Unique Entity Number ... is approved, cancelled or amended.” Recent developments indicate that declaring agents billed their clients with falsified documents showing the higher correct GST rates, but had submitted import permits to regulators with the lower rates, pocketing the difference in the taxes paid, the notice said.

Japan is temporarily hiking tariffs on U.S. beef imports, from 25.8% to 38.5%, for one month, Japan's agriculture ministry said, Reuters reported March 17. It said the bump up is because fiscal year 2020 volumes exceeded levels agreed to in the bilateral trade agreement signed between the two nations in January 2020. By early March, U.S. beef imports had reached 242,229 metric tons, topping the 242,000 metric ton limit set for the current fiscal year. The heightened tariff rate will last through April 16, marking the first use of the safeguard measure under the agreement. It will drop to 25% on April 17, the Reuters report said.

South Korea denounced the military takeover in Myanmar and issued countermeasures to punish the coup in the Southeast Asian nation, according to an unofficial translation of a March 12 news release. South Korea said it will stop new defense and security exchanges and cooperation with Myanmar; block exports of military materials to Myanmar and strictly examine export licenses for strategic industrial materials; and review development cooperation projects in the beleaguered nation. The release also said that South Korea will allow refugees to temporarily stay in its borders until the situation stabilizes.

The Singapore Customs TradeNet will undergo system maintenance March 28, 4 a.m. to noon local time, it said March 15. The agency advised users to avoid submitting applications during this time. This is in addition to the usual 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday maintenance.

Myanmar is waiving import and export licensing requirements for certain agricultural goods to help sustain the flow of food into the country, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report released March 15. The licensing exemptions will apply to certain food staples -- including rice, grains, oils, cotton, sugar and onions -- from March 8 through April 9, USDA said. While the country’s February military coup has crippled Myanmar’s logistics sector and delayed trade (see 2103090005), the exemption may provide “some relief” for U.S. wheat and soybean exports, USDA said. The agency said Myanmar’s largest barrier to trade remains the lack of drivers to move the more than 10,000 containers stuck at ports.

Malaysia recently announced new requirements for imports of grains and grain products, according to a March 12 report from the U.S Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service. The requirements, which will take effect April 1, will require Malaysian importers to have a “valid import license and the appropriate import permit” for feed products. Malaysian trading partners and other stakeholders can file comments to the World Trade Organization by March 26.

The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has until Dec. 31, 2021, to complete its export process of allocated quantities of Red Sanders wood, India's Director General of Foreign Trade announced in a March 11 notice. The valuable timber, endemic to southern India, is an endangered species, thus warranting its export controls. The notice grants the Andhra Pradesh governing body to the end of the year to “finalize the modalities, including allocation of quantities to their authorized entities for export of the Red Sanders wood.”

Australia plans to ask the World Trade Organization to establish a dispute settlement panel to rule on what it says are illegal Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley (see 2005180016). Australia held WTO consultations with China in late January but those talks “did not resolve our concerns,” Australia’s Trade Minister Dan Tehan said March 15. Tehan said the duties have unfairly affected barley exporters and are “not consistent with China's WTO obligations.”