TradeLane

It has been two years since the implementation of the United States – Mexico – Canada Free Trade Agreement. For those of you reading this outside of the US, the agreement is referred to in Canada as the Canada – United States – Mexico Agreement (CUSMA); and in Mexico, this agreement is referred to as Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC). All three names refer to the same trade agreement.

If you are involved in the exportation of goods from the United States, you are most likely familiar with the term Routed Transaction and all that it entails – which up to this point, has been a whole lot of confusion and misunderstanding.

In early October this year, the Jakarta Post in Indonesia reported that after 35 days and intervention from the Ombudsman and several other government institutions, some imported fruits and horticultural products worth about $1.9 million USD detained by the Agricultural Ministry were finally released.

The European Union (EU) implements control measures for the export, transit, brokerage, and technical assistance of dual-use items in accordance with international non-proliferation treaties and governmental commitments. As items are an important parameter in EU export control measures, the use and users of the items are equally important. EU exporters must provide all necessary information on the end user and end-use for export authorizations. The end-use statement (EUS) is a useful means for measuring risk factors that come from the recipient of the items. However, is this useful tool properly being used for its intended purpose? Common misunderstandings regarding the EUS will be given below in the light of Tradewin's experience.

The US Government has increased its efforts to prevent goods produced wholly or in part by forced labor from entering the United States. This has taken the form of legislative action through the passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) and procedural actions like the use of Withhold Release Orders (WROs). As a natural extension, CBP has also enhanced forced labor requirements in the CTPAT Program.