TradeLane

Regulations, rules, requirements – the life of an international trader bumps up against them all the time. It is our job to make sure that our organizations understand them, follow them, and stay out of trouble.

As soon as you have exhaustively explained how EVERYTHING that is imported into the U.S. must be marked with its country of origin, or how you can NEVER export anything to Cuba, or why you ALWAYS pay duty when you import something that some know-it-all brings up – the EXCEPTION.

On March 26, 2016, China’s General Administration of Customs (GAC) announced a revision of the import and export declaration forms (GAC Announcement, No. 20 of 2016).

The revision has accommodated and consolidated all the legislative changes made by Customs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, and National Reform and Development Commission etc. ever since 2008, which are relevant to, or have impact on, import and export declaration process. Considering the number of fields that have been changed or added, the revision is unprecedented in past decades.

As we all know, the Union Customs Code (UCC) changes are going into effect on May 1, 2016. We at Tradewin have had our ears to the ground waiting for the latest updates on these changes and how they may affect customs programs and procedures, such as Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) status.

From what we have learned, the UCC will have a big effect on EU traders.  

Under the new UCC, AEO licensing and the Binding Tariff Information process will be among the first changes implemented.

Most of us have heard of the terms “sanctions” and “embargoes”. They are often used interchangeably, but they are quite different.

Trade sanctions target specific types of transactions, as in a prohibition to sell arms to a specific business, country, government or regime. An embargo represents a complete prohibition of all trade activities between countries.

Sanctions and embargoes are political tools used throughout the world.

I used to live in the USA. I spent a year in Corvallis, Oregon when I was ten years old. I remember it as one of the happiest times in my life, except for being confused about my national identity. Most of my elementary school classmates thought that I was from North Korea. This is not surprising since the North Korea nuclear issue had been surfacing at that time during George H. W. Bush’s presidency. North Korea is still a frequent topic on the famous American TV show, Conan, to this day.