Following the passing of a suite of legislations, sales tax at the rate of 10% will be imposed on low value goods (i.e., all goods outside Malaysia which are sold at a price not exceeding RM 500 and brought into Malaysia via land, sea or air modes) (“LVG”) sold by a seller (i.e., a person who sells LVG on an online marketplace or operates an online marketplace for the sales and purchase of LVG) (“Seller”).…
Baker McKenzie’s InsightPlus published “Vietnam: Early warning – Potential anti-dumping investigation against office desks, chairs and their parts originating from China and Malaysia,” which can be viewed here.
On 2 June 2021, the UK government announced that the CPTPP nations had agreed to the UK’s bid to begin the accession process to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The CPTPP is a trade agreement between 11 countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam), covering 500 million people. The announcement said the UK will continue to work closely with Japan, as this year’s…
Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry announced that on 9 April 2021, Singapore deposited its instrument of ratification with the Secretary-General of ASEAN and became the first country to complete the official process for ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement. It is understood that China, Japan and Thailand completed their domestic procedures to approve RCEP, but apparently have not deposited their instruments of ratification with ASEAN. RCEP is the world’s largest free trade agreement and…
On March 29, 2021, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will publish in the Federal Register a notice of finding that certain disposable gloves produced in Malaysia with the use of convict, forced or indentured labor are being, or are likely to be, imported into the United States [CBP Dec. 21-08]. This Finding applies to any merchandise described in Section II of the notice that is imported on or after March 29, 2021. It also…
In brief Malaysia caught up with the global trend of taxing cross-border supplies of digital services by introducing a 6% service tax on imported digital services (SToDS), starting January 1, 2020. That said, unlike similar goods and services tax (GST) or value-added tax (VAT) regimes in other countries, the Malaysian SToDS regime imposes the tax on both individual and business consumers in Malaysia, which took most Malaysian businesses by surprise. Business raised various concerns regarding…
On December 16, 2020, US Department of the Treasury delivered to Congress the semiannual Report on Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States. Treasury determined that both Vietnam and Switzerland are currency manipulators. For each country, Treasury assessed, based on a range of evidence and circumstances, that at least part of its exchange rate management over the four quarters through June 2020, and particularly foreign exchange intervention, was for…
Further to our alert on the development of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiation (Link), we would like to share additional details about the RCEP based on the current information available. The RCEP members signed the RCEP on 15 November 2020 during the 37th ASEAN Summit. After the signing, the Thai government shall arrange for a public hearing before presenting to the parliament for ratification. We will keep you updated on this issue if…
On November 15, 2020, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed by China and 14 other nations — the 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei*, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia*, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore*, Thailand and Vietnam*) plus Australia*, China, Japan*, New Zealand* and South Korea. Many of the products for which tariffs are eliminated are already duty-free. [Countries with an * are also signatories to the CPTPP] RCEP was originally proposed…
On September 30, 2020, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a press release announcing that effective September 30 at all U.S. ports of entry, CBP will detain palm oil and palm oil products made by FGV Holdings Berhad and its subsidiaries and joint ventures. CBP’s Office of Trade directed the issuance of a Withhold Release Order (WRO) against palm oil and palm oil products made by FGV based on information that reasonably indicates the…