On December 28, 2017, the Defense Acquisition Regulations System, Department of Defense (DoD) published in the Federal Register a final rule [Docket DARS-2017—0017] amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to incorporate revised thresholds for application of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and the Free Trade Agreements, as determined by the United States Trade Representative. The thresholds are effective January 1, 2018. The thresholds are shown below:
At the recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC“) Summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, the 11 remaining countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (“TPP11“) took a significant step forward to finalize a new agreement now referred to as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (“CPTPP“). Media reports were mixed as some outlets reported that there was an agreement in principle while others reported that Canada was not ready to sign on. However, the end result is an impressive draft agreement in principle on most of the existing terms with some key exceptions and a few remaining issues from Canada’s perspective. To its credit, Japan has been leading the effort to move forward with the CPTPP in hopes of the United States rejoining the agreement at some point in the future.
On 11 November 2017, In the margins of the APEC meetings in Da Nang, Vietnam, the TPP ministers of Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, agreed to the following statement on the Trans-Pacific Partnership:
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) invites members of the public to comment on a review of Australia’s listings of five persons pursuant to United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1373 (2001).
Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) Notice 2017/25 sets out the new rates of excise-equivalent customs duty on tobacco and tobacco products, operative from 1 September 2017.
The Australian Department of Defence has announced that the public and interested stakeholders are invited to comment on proposed amendments to regulation 13E of the Customs (Prohibited Exports) Regulations 1958. The intent behind the proposed amendments is to update current export control processes, bringing regulation 13E into line with the more modern regulatory powers contained in the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012 (DTC Act).
Broadly, the amendments include:
On 14 July 2017, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) announced that it was inviting members of the public to comment on a review of Australia’s autonomous sanctions imposed on 63 individuals and 21 entities in response to Russia’s ongoing threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
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.
Defence Export Controls (DEC) is responsible to the Minister for Defence for regulating the export of defence and strategic goods and technologies. On 20 June 2017, the DEC updated various export application forms. The updated forms are:
On 15 June 2017, the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Julie Bishop, announced that Australia’s Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with Ukraine has come into force, following the completion of both governments’ respective treaty processes. The announcement stated: