China has officially applied to join the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, the country's Ministry of Commerce said, according to an unofficial translation. Penning a letter to New Zealand Minister of Trade and Export Growth Damien O'Connor, China applied to join the pact currently covering Singapore, New Zealand and Chile. The Ministry of Commerce said that joining the DEPA will further China's domestic reforms and expand high-level "opening up to the outside world."
The Singapore Customs TradeNet will undergo system maintenance Nov. 14 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time, it said Oct. 29. Singapore Customs 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.
U.S. dairy exports to Indonesia, an important destination for U.S. dairy, are falling due to congestion at U.S. ports and limited container availability, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in an Oct. 27 report. The port congestion is contributing to “longer waiting times” and resulting in longer shipment lead times, and USDA expects congestion to continue for the rest of the year. But the agency said European seaports aren’t facing the same shipping issues, and Indonesian dairy importers are beginning to instead source from Europe and Oceania “to capitalize on cost efficiency and [meet] production demand.” Imports from both regions have “increased significantly” as about 81% of Indonesia’s consumed dairy products are imported, USDA said.
Macau has not found any imported foods contaminated with the COVID-19 virus after testing chilled and frozen foods and their packaging for the past year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released Oct. 27. The process may have slowed certain customs procedures because inspection centers were required to sanitize packaging of imports and collect testing samples from random shipments, which could not be released until the results were available. Macau began testing its imports following reports that China detected COVID-19 on imported frozen foods in 2020. It’s unclear whether the island will continue checking imports for the virus.
China will no longer issue Generalized System of Preferences certificates of origin for goods exported to European Union member states, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, Ukraine and Liechtenstein beginning Dec. 1, China's General Administration of Customs said in an Oct. 26 announcement, according to an unofficial translation. The move comes since these countries no longer give China preferential tariff treatment under the GSP. China will now only provide non-preferential certificates of origin to interested consignors.
China implemented inspection and quarantine requirements for imports of Italian beef, in an Oct. 26 announcement from China's General Administration of Customs, according to an unofficial translation. The measures apply to frozen and chilled boneless skeletal muscle of cattle under 30 months of age. Minced meat and other cattle byproducts are not allowed to be exported to China, the requirements said. Exporters need to be registered with the General Administration of Customs, and the cattle itself must be born, raised and slaughtered in Italy while coming from a farm that does not have any risk of mad cow disease, the measures said.
Malaysia recently introduced new antidumping duties on certain steel imports from China, South Korea and Vietnam, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Oct. 25. The measures, which will remain in place until Oct 8, 2026, impose antidumping duties ranging from 7.42% to 42.08% on imports of certain cold‑rolled coils of alloy and non‑alloy steel, the report said. The duties will vary among companies, with China’s BX Steel POSCO Cold Rolled Sheet Co. assessed at 35.89% and other mainland firms, including Bengang Steel Plates Co. and the Jiangsu Shagang International Trade Co., at 42.08%. Duties will be 11.55% for subject goods from South Korea’s Hyundai Steel Co. and 33.70% from Vietnam’s China Steel Sumikin Viet Nam Joint Stock Co. Imports of “tin mill black plate and related automotive‑use items” will be exempt, the report said.
Bangladesh plans to accelerate customs-related services in the country’s Export Processing Zones for certain traders, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Oct. 22. The move will allow import‑export customs permissions, bond registrations and the release of duty‑free import goods to be processed more quickly for certain foreign and local investors involved in trade, the report said. The services will be available through a dedicated online portal.
India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade extended the date for the mandatory electronic filing of nonpreferential Certificate of Origin documents through the Common Digital Platform to Oct. 31. All agencies are required to ensure that the on-boarding exercise is completed by then, the DGFT said.
China has met just over half of the commitments it made during the phase one trade deal signed by President Donald Trump, Bloomberg reported Oct. 21, basing its calculations on Chinese customs data. China pledged to buy up $200 billion in additional products and services under the deal. In September, it imported $11.7 billion worth of manufactured, agricultural and energy goods from the U.S., the report said.