India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade gave three new entities the power to issue Certificates of Origin. The Export Promotion Council for EOUs and SEZs in New Delhi, the Urban Exim Care Association in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and the Federation of Industries & Associations in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, are authorized to issue Certificates of Origin to Appendices and Aayat Niryat Forms of the Foreign Trade Policy, DGFT said an Oct. 18 notice.
Japan's September exports plunged due to supply chain pressures, with the growth of overseas shipments dropping 3.9% from August, the Ministry of Finance said. Japan saw its starkest drop in auto exports, essentially wiping out the gains seen from shipments of steel and chip components. Exports rose 13% from September 2020, the report said.
China imposed quarantine and veterinary health requirements on imports of beef from Russia, China's General Administration of Customs said Oct. 18, according to an unofficial translation. The regulation applies to frozen or chilled beef from cattle under 30 months of age at the time of slaughter, along with their listed edible byproducts. Ground meat, minced meat and mechanically separate meat will not be allowed to be imported into China. Inspection and quarantine requirements include certifying that there are no bovine spongiform encephalopathy, small ruminant animal disease, rinderpest and bovine infectious pleural pneumonia cases in Russia.
China announced new quarantine and sanitation requirements for imports of breeding pigs from Ireland, China's General Administration of Customs said in an Oct. 18 announcement, according to an unofficial translation. Irish pigs will be subject to China's quarantine and hygiene requirements, the notice said. Also, while there currently are no swine epidemics in Ireland, Irish customs will halt all exports to China if diseases do break out in Ireland, the quarantine guidelines said.
There are nearly 100 container ships waiting to berth at the Hong Kong and Shenzhen container ports, representing the “worst” container backlog in the world, Financial Times reported Oct. 15. The backlog was partly caused by a typhoon that closed ports for two days last week, which added to the existing port congestion problems. There are about 584 container ships stuck outside ports globally, the report said, nearly twice the amount at the beginning of this year.
Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade terminated an antidumping investigation into high-fructose corn syrup from China and South Korea after finding no correlation between the dumped products and harm to the domestic industry, the state-run Customs News said. Domestic HFCS producers had petitioned for the probe, which found that HFCS from China and South Korea is being dumped in Vietnam and that the domestic industry has been suffering significant losses, the report said. Factoring in the country's legal regulations on trade defense and the World Trade Organization's anti-dumping agreement, MIT decided to terminate the investigation, but to coordinate with stakeholders to monitor HFCS imports and devise measures to protect interests of domestic producers.
The Singapore Customs TradeNet will undergo system maintenance Oct. 31 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time, it said Oct. 15. 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.
Traders should be more compliant with Singapore requirements at the Changi Airfreight Centre and the Airport Logistics Park of Singapore, Singapore Customs said Oct. 14. Citing recent checks that turned up instances of noncompliance or delays in furnishing customs documents, the office urged compliance with the Customs Act and the Regulation of Imports and Exports Act, along with other relevant legislation. It said compliance steps include maintaining proper records of the relevant documents such as air waybill, commercial invoices, packing lists and customs permits, along with obtaining appropriate customs permits for the temporary storage of imports in the free-trade zones.
A “rapid” increase in cotton prices during the past few weeks has sparked anxiety across China’s cotton industry supply chain and likely will result in intervention from Beijing, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service reported Oct. 8. The country likely will announce an “additional batch of sliding-scale cotton import quota” to be allocated to relevant enterprises, USDA said, adding that steps the government uses to “replenish state reserves” could affect China’s cotton imports. The rising prices have particularly impacted the Xinjiang region, USDA said, which produces the majority of the nation’s cotton and has been accused of using forced labor.
Indonesia recently issued a new regulation for imports of certain dairy products, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service reported Oct. 12. The regulation includes a new questionnaire and requirements for dairy establishments exporting to Indonesia and updates dairy import standards. Dairy establishments must disclose a range of information in the new questionnaire, including production volume, where they source raw ingredients, information on the production process, and food and safety details.