On April 26, 2018, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued CSMS #18-000307 GSP Goods Subject to Section 201 Measures, which provides additional Information with respect to articles of Thailand or Philippines, which are covered by Section 201 safeguard remedies (certain solar cells, solar panels, washing machines, and washing machine parts). According to the CSMS:
It is being reported that on March 22, 2018, USTR Robert Lighthizer announced at a Senate Finance Committee hearing that the administration would exempt the European Union, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and South Korea from the 25% steel and 10% aluminum tariffs set to take effect on March 23, 2018.
On December 27, 2017, the Federal Register published Proclamation 9687 of December 22, 2017 – To Take Certain Actions Under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and for Other Purposes. The Proclamation:
On July 14, 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) published in the Federal Register a notice providing country-by-country allocations of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 (October 1, 2017 through Sept. 30, 2018) in-quota quantity of the tariff-rate quotas for imported raw cane sugar, certain sugars, syrups and molasses (also known as refined sugar), specialty sugar, and sugar-containing products.
On 15 May 2017, the Boletin Official published Decree 333/2017 (5 May 2017), which reinstates a prohibition (for a period of five years) on the importation for consumption of certain used textile products covered by MERCOSUR Common Nomenclature (NCM)
On 3 March 2017, the Boletin Oficial (Official Bulletin) published Secretary of Commerce Resolution 152-E / 2017 (02-03-17), which modifies Resolution № 5/2015 by eliminating 11 statistical subheadings to the MERCOSUR Common Nomenclature (NCM) from the list of goods subject to the Non-Automatic Licensing requirements. These items will now be subject to the Automatic Licensing regime.
On 23 January 2017, the Boletin Oficial (Official Gazette) published Decree 51/2017 (20 January 2017) (by the President with the agreement of the Ministers) to remove the congestion of goods being stored by the Customs Service.
The Argentine Central Bank (“ACB”) issued Communication “A” 6118 (“Communication”), which modified Communication “A” 6037 by providing more flexibility to payments linked to e-commerce transactions. The Communication amended the requirements applicable for payments performed through payment processors’ entities. It also includes the obligation of the local financial institution to issue, at an exporter’s request, a certification of the funds received or liquidation of funds.
Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are required under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) to report to the WTO all proposed technical regulations that could affect trade with other Member countries. The WTO Secretariat distributes this information in the form of “notifications” to all Member countries. The chart below summarizes notifications from the WTO in English received and posted by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) during the past month.
Customs issued General Instruction 8/2016 of 19 September 2016, abrogating General Instruction 7/2012. The latter had ordered the blocking of all payments of exports benefits to those exporters that were in breach of their obligations under the foreign exchange regulations.