Tariffs, quotas and other traditional trade barriers are gradually declining with the growth in free trade agreements. As the regional market gains strength in this sector, the Asia Pacific Food Law Guide offers key insights on food laws in 11 jurisdictions across Asia Pacific.
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.
On November 21, 2015, the President’s Press Secretary released a Joint Statement on the ASEAN-U.S. Strategic Partnership. At the 3rd ASEAN-U.S. Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States elevated their relationship to the ASEAN-U.S. Strategic Partnership to strengthen the role their relationship plays in realizing a common vision of a peaceful, prosperous Asia-Pacific region that offers security, opportunity and dignity to all its…
Australian Customs and Border Protection Notice No. 2014/57 of 3 December 2014 notifies traders that the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has advised of changes to statistical codes in the Customs Tariff Working pages, from 1 January 2015, for tariff subheadings 7227.90.90, 7228.70.00, 7308.90.00, 7312.10.00, 7312.90.00. In addition, The duty rates applying to certain TCF goods in Chapters 39, 40, 42, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63 and 96 of Schedule 3 of the Customs Tariff…
On 12 September 2013, the European Commission announced that a new round of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations will take place in Thailand 16-20 September. Discussions will build on the areas developed during the first round and include goods, rules of origin, services and investment, public procurement, competition, intellectual property, trade remedies, and trade and sustainable development. The first round of negotiations took place on 27-31 May in Brussels and ended on a positive note…