TradeLane

On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into force. RCEP members have a total population of 2.27 billion, a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 26 trillion US dollars, and a total export value of 5.2 trillion US dollars, accounting for about 30% of the global economy. After RCEP takes effect, more than 90% of the trade in goods among RCEP members will finally achieve 0% tariff.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (“RCEP”) was signed on 15 November 2020 and entered into force on 1 January 2022 for ten countries: Australia, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China*, Japan, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It was subsequently entered into force for the Republic of Korea on 1 February 2022 and Malaysia on 18 March 2022, and most recently ratified by Indonesia on 30 August 2022. RCEP is one of the largest free trade agreements (“FTA”), covering around one-third of the world’s population and accounting for about one-third of global GDP.

*Note that Hong Kong, China (“Hong Kong”) is a separate customs territory from the People’s Republic of China (“China”).

Last May, the National Competition for Customs Valuation and HS Classification was held by CVCI (Customs Valuation & Classification Institute, affiliated organization of Korea Customs Service).

A total of 369 people, including 21 organizations, participated in the HS Classification competition, and 271 people, including 11 organizations, participated in the Customs Valuation competition.

On May 3^rd, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a notice requesting comments from US domestic industry regarding the extension of Section 301 duties originally imposed in July and August 2018. The request for comments is directed at US domestic industries that have benefited from the Section 301 action, which imposes additional duties on products that are country of origin China.

It has been over two months since the start of the invasion by Russia into Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022. As the tensions began to build before the invasion, the Member States of the European Union and the United Kingdom had been threatening to impose sanctions on Russia in the event that they invade Ukraine. Both the European Union and the United Kingdom were quick to enforce the sanctions once military operations commenced.