Customs and Trade News
Claudia Stroe
Certified Customs Practitioner | Export and Import Customs Procedures | Customs Compliance | Open to Exciting Opportunities to enhance my skills and stay updated on industry trends.
In this edition we will cover the most important customs and trade headlines of the last first two weeks of November.
EU and Angola sign first-ever Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreement
The agreement, with its commitments to improve business climate and sustainability across the economy, is expected to attract new EU investment to sectors where Angola's potential is currently untapped. The EU-Angola Business Forum confirmed opportunities for investments notably in green energy, agri-food value chains, digital innovation, fisheries, logistics, and critical raw materials.
EU launches tool to help exporters seize benefits of Mutual Recognition Agreements
The new 'Access2Conformity' tool will allow EU exporters large and small to reduce red tape by making better use of the EU’s Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with third countries.
When businesses export goods to a trade partner?country, these goods have to be certified by testing facilities ('conformity assessment bodies', or CABs) in the country of destination, to ensure that they comply with local rules and regulations, even when already certified for their domestic market. This essentially means that exporters must go through the process of testing their goods twice.
Fortunately, MRAs can solve this problem. In the case of the EU, they allow the exporting Member State to designate their own CAB as capable of testing and certifying exported products to make sure that they comply with the rules and regulations of the importing trade partner.
HMRC calls on exporters to subscribe to Customs Declaration Service
The government has called on all exporters to subscribe to the new Customs Declaration Service (CDS), which will be mandatory for export declarations from 31 March next year.
In an email sent to all non-subscribed export declarants, HMRC outlines the information and steps needed to subscribe to the service.
The legacy service currently in use, Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF), will be fully retired on 30 March 2024. The system has already become defunct for importers who made the CDS migration last year.
Additional duties on goods originating in Russia and Belarus
On 4 December 2023, the UK will introduce a further package of additional duties for selected goods originating in Russia and Belarus. This is a limited package to ensure that Russia and Belarus cannot benefit from Most Favoured Nation tariff treatment on a further range of products.
Safety & Security – Waivers Update
As outlined in the Border Target Operating Model released in August, a revised strategy for Safety & Security (S&S) controls for imports and exports has been implemented. From 19 December 2023 the changes listed in the BTOM will introduce a number of easements for movements leaving the UK.
UK dairy industry to be boosted by new export programme
The Department for Business and Trade has launched the Dairy Export Programme designed to help grow agri-food exports in overseas markets.
The programme will provide a wide range of targeted support for businesses, through education sessions on how to boost exports and target new markets and trade promotion activity, including an inward buyer trade mission and a UK Dairy Showcase.
It will also provide specialist resource in priority markets dedicated to supporting dairy exports and market intelligence support to help businesses exploit overseas opportunities.
WCO Launches Data Quality E-Learning Course for Customs Officers
The WCO announced the release of its latest educational offering, the Data Quality E-Learning Course.
The Data Quality E-Learning Course consists of six comprehensive lessons, each designed to provide Customs officers with the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in data quality management. These lessons offer a structured approach to understanding, diagnosing, and improving data quality. They also delve into the practical application of codes and algorithms for effective data quality management.
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WTO issues new edition of Trade Profiles
Trade Profiles provides a series of key indicators on trade in goods and services for 197 economies and detailed information on merchandise trade flows, including top products traded by each economy, an expanded section on trade in commercial services, as well as statistics on intellectual property.
The data are taken from a variety of sources, and each profile is presented in a handy two-page format, allowing for easy comparison between economies.
Report finds strong expansion of global value chains but warns of increased vulnerability
According to the GVC Development Report 2023 issued on 16 November, the Global value chains (GVCs) continued to expand in 2022, however, the report also flags increasing risks from the dependence on a small number of economies for certain products and highlights the vulnerability of GVCs to rising trade tensions and global crises.
On sustainability, the report provides a comprehensive carbon emissions accounting framework that traces greenhouse gas emissions along GVCs and proposes a conceptual framework for helping ?to make GVCs more environmentally friendly.
The report is available here.
WTO launches new online course on trade and sustainable waste management
The WTO and the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS Conventions) launched on 7 November a new online course on the interplay between international trade rules and the movement of chemical products and toxic waste across borders.
“Jointly developed by the BRS conventions Secretariat and the WTO's Trade and Environment Division and Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation, this new “Level 2” course is a unique opportunity for both trade and environment specialists to familiarize themselves with issues at the juncture of trade and sustainable waste management,” said Ludivine Tamiotti, Head of the WTO's Environment Section.
British businesses to benefit from landmark South American aerospace partnership
UK Export Finance (UKEF) has signed an agreement with Embraer which is expected to increase the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer’s spend on UK suppliers. The export credit agency issued a first, ￡89 million financing guarantee to Embraer in 2022 to support contracts with UK exporters.
This new agreement will now see UKEF link the value of future credit guarantees to the value of Embraer’s spend on the UK supply chain.
This is expected to boost the firm’s annual spend on UK goods and services, which already stands at approximately $60 million.
UK and Florida trade and economic co-operation memorandum of understanding
The memorandum sets out mutual goals and activities to strengthen our economic ties and prioritises cooperation in the space, fintech, life sciences, supply chains, transport, infrastructure, agricultural biotechnology sectors, legal services and lawtech. It also prioritises other emerging and innovative sectors, such as artificial intelligence and semiconductors.
Chancellor expected to announce Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism in Autumn Statement
Hunt is expected to announce that the UK programme will launch at the same time as the EU’s to avoid the risk that the UK becomes a ‘dumping ground’ for steel products that would otherwise face European tariffs.
Under a CBAM, additional taxes could be placed on imported products that are made using highly polluting processes, partly to safeguard domestic industry from goods produced in countries with less stringent environmental standards.
Food fight: Canada-UK trade talks stall over key agri-exports
The UK’s 2021 rollover agreement with Canada following its formal departure from the EU is due to expire at the end of the year, and attempts to reach a permanent agreement are mired in misgivings over the trade of cheese and beef.
UK cheese exporters have petitioned the Department of Business and Trade to ensure they have continued access to the Canadian market post-2023, while a campaign from a coalition of cattle farmers to block the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) gained traction earlier this year.
UK imports and exports fall in September, quarterly data shows fall in trade deficit
The UK’s imports fell “substantially” with exports also dropping to both the EU and rest of the world over the month of September, according to today’s (10 November) trade data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Across the third quarter of 2023 (July-September), goods exports dropped by a total of ￡1.9bn (2%), with a large fall in non-EU exports “slightly offset” by an increase in EU-bound exports.