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China – New cross-border e-Commerce (“CBE”) regulations bring new opportunities and challenges for overseas sellers

By 2 Mins Read

On November 28, 2019, several Chinese authorities, including the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Customs (GAC), the State Administration of Taxation and the State Administration for Market Supervision, jointly issued a Circular on Improving Supervision of Crossborder E-Commerce Retail Imports, effective from 1 January 2019. GAC subsequently issued a Circular [2018] No. 194 to implement the aforementioned regulation, also effective from January 1, 2019 (both circulars are collectively referred to as the “New CBE Regulations”).

Extension of import restrictions imposed on certain archaeological material from China

By 2 Mins Read

On January 14, 2019, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) published in the Federal Register a final rule [CBP Dec. 19-02) that amends the CBP regulations to reflect an extension of import restrictions on certain archaeological material from China. The restrictions, which were originally imposed by CBP Dec. 09-03 and last extended by CBP Dec. 14-02, are due to expire on January 14, 2019.

US – President issues Proclamation modifying the HTS

By 5 Mins Read

On December 21, 2018, the President signed the Presidential Proclamation to Take Certain Actions Under the African Growth and Opportunity Act and for Other Purposes (not yet published in the Federal Register). The Proclamation:

  • Terminates the designation of Mauritania as a beneficiary sub‑Saharan African country for purposes of section 506A of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (the “Trade Act”), effective January 1, 2019, and deletes “Islamic Republic of Mauritania” from the list of beneficiary sub-Saharan African countries in general note 16(a) to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTS”). The modification to the HTS set forth above shall be effective with respect to articles that are entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after January 1, 2019.

US – OFAC and State Department Russia sanctions developments, including OFAC notification to congress of intent to lift sanctions on En+, RUSAL, and EuroSibEnergo

By 4 Mins Read

On December 19, 2018, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) submitted a letter to congressional leaders (“Congressional Letter”) notifying Congress of its intent to terminate the sanctions imposed on En+ Group plc (“En+”), UC Rusal plc (“RUSAL”), and JSC EuroSibEnergo (“ESE”) in 30 days.  On the same day, OFAC announced new sanctions against a number of individuals and entities for their involvement in a range of malign activities.  Concurrently, the US Department of State announced it had added 12 individuals and entities to the List of Specified Persons under Section 231 of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (“CAATSA”) for being part of, or operating for or on behalf of, the defense or intelligence sector of the Russian Federation.

EU – Council extends sanctions against Russia

By 2 Mins Read

On 21 December 2018, the Council announced that it prolonged the economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy until 31 July 2019.

This decision follows an update from President Macron and Chancellor Merkel to the European Council of 13-14 December 2018 on the state of implementation of the Minsk agreements, to which the sanctions are linked. Given that no progress has been made, the European Council took the political decision to roll-over the economic sanctions against Russia.