India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade on July 27 suspended eight standard input output norms (SIONs) appearing under four serial numbers. Those SIONs are for C594, carbon/ alloy steel seamless tubes (cold finished); C791, seamless stainless steel tubes (cold finished); C792, seamless stainless steel tubes (cold finished) (stainless steel grade-304/304L/321); C793, seamless stainless steel tubes (cold finished) (stainless steel grade-316/316L/316TI); C794, seamless stainless steel tubes/pipes (hot finished); C795, seamless stainless steel tubes (hot finished) (stainless steel grade-304/304L/321); C796, seamless stainless steel tubes (hot finished) (stainless steel grade-316/316L/316TI); and C831, stainless steel seamless tubes/pipes (cold finish).

India provided guidance on its recent decisions to change its import policy for items of copper and aluminum from "Free" to "Free subject to compulsory registration under Non-Ferrous Metal Import Monitoring System." The Directorate General for Foreign Trade clarified several items, including that NFMIMS won't be applicable on air-freighted goods and that multiple assignments against a NFMIMS registration can be imported within the validity of the NFMIMS registrations.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade in a July 27 notice relaxed the provision requiring the submission of a "Bill of Export" for supplies exported to a special economic zone (SEZ). DGFT eased the requirement for shipments under Export Promotion Capital Goods authorization or all supplies made before April 1, 2015. For the purposes of discharge of export obligation under the EPCG, exporters can submit corroborative evidence in place of the Bill of Export such as an ARE-I form, evidence of receipt of the supplies by the recipient in the SEZ, and evidence of payment made by the SEZ unit to the EPCG authorization holder.

Cambodia recently enacted a new food safety law that will affect imports, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported July 22. The law, which was signed in June, requires importers to submit an authorization certificate for certain foods, HKTDC said, adding the foods may also be subject to a “laboratory analysis.” Imported goods that don’t meet the new compliance requirements may be reexported, destroyed, replaced or reexamined, HKTDC said. Cambodia plans to issue a list of food items subject to the new procedures along with their import conditions.

South Korea recently adjusted its tariff rate quotas on seven “key” agricultural goods for the second half of this year, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report last week. The new expanded quotas, meant to stabilize food prices, will affect soybean oil, sunflower seed oil, pork, wheat, wheat flour, processed egg products and fodder, the agency said. The changes took effect July 1.

Japan Customs now accepts mobile payment applications for customs duties payments at seven airports, the agency announced. Customs duties and taxes can be paid using mobile payment applications at Narita International Airport, Tokyo International Airport, Kansai International Airport, Chubu Centrair International Airport, Fukuoka Airport, New Chitose Airport and Naha Airport. In another notice, Japan Customs said that credit cards are now accepted for customs duties payments by passengers in these same seven airports.

Australia this week announced a new supply chain service to give Australian agricultural exporters better real-time trade information. The Export Supply Chain Service will help Australian shippers of perishable products “navigate ‘new-look' supply chains and a changed international trade environment” by providing better logistics information, Australia said. The service, launching Aug. 1, will give exporters “the real-time information and insights they need to navigate complex global supply chains,” Don Farrell, Australia’s trade minister, said.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade in a July 18 notice implemented three memorandums of understanding -- for urad and tur from Myanmar, pigeon peas from Malawi and pigeon peas from Mozambique. For 2022-2026, the DGFT set import quotas for urad and tur from Myanmar at 250,000 metric tons and 100,000 metric tons, respectively. For pigeon peas from Malawi, the import quota was set at 50,000 mt; for pigeon peas from Mozambique, the quota was set at at 200,000 mt.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade in a July 18 notice laid out the steps for submitting a request for seeking Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) approval for exports of wheat flour (atta). Exporters must submit their requests for approval in ANF 2N application format along with a purchase order/copy of invoice and documentary evidence in case the firm is ISO 22000 compliant. The application comes with a 1,000 rupee processing fee that must be paid at the time of submission. Approval will be valid for three months.

Exports in crude oil from Saudi Arabia will increase in July given a bump in flows to China, vessel-tracing data compiled by Bloomberg reveals, the publication reported July 19. Total observed shipments will reach around 7.7 million barrels a day, according to the data gathered through July 18, up from 6.6 million barrels daily in June. Bloomberg clarified that the number could be misleading, as a few days of higher-than-normal trade can skew the numbers for the short time the data measures. The number of barrels heading to China sits at 1.8 million daily -- the most seen since April.