Thailand recently updated its approved list of “good handling practice standards” for exports of U.S. fresh fruit and vegetables, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service reported May 25. The list contains imported fresh produce that must include a “production standard certificate from an approved good handling practice standard.” Thailand’s Food and Drug Administration added one approved practice standard to the list: the “GLOBAL GAP -- Produce Handling Assurance version 1.2.”

Certain services relating to India's Import-Exporter Code Services will be unavailable June 1-6 since Permanent Account Number validation services are being consumed by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade's IT systems, according to a May 26 trade notice from the DGFT.According to the release, the application for a new IEC, application for amendments/modification of an IEC and one-time linking of Aadhaar (unique numbering system) for e-sign purposes will be unavailable for the designated period.

Thailand’s Cabinet recently approved a draft regulation to temporarily reduce certain customs duty surcharges, KPMG said in a May 24 post. Proposed to help provide relief from the COVID-19 pandemic, the measure would reduce the surcharge on an importer or exporter that underpays customs duty but pays the outstanding amount by a certain date, the post said. The measure would reduce the current 1% per month surcharge charge to 0.25% per month, KPMG said. The surcharge relief will be effective from the day following its publication in the Government Gazette until Sept. 30, KPMG said.

The Philippines recently lowered its Most Favored Nation tariff rates for rice to diversify market sources and maintain affordable rice prices, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report released May 19. The decision, which took effect this month, lowered the 40% in-quota and 50% out-quota rice tariff rates to 35%, USDA said. The lowered rates place Philippines’ MFN duty at the same rate as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Despite the tariff rate drop, USDA said prospects for U.S. rice exporters remain “limited outside of niche markets” because of their “relatively higher price.”

Singapore Customs arrested four Singaporean nationals and seized more than 9,081 carts of cigarettes for non-payment of duties on the goods, the agency announced in a May 19 joint news release with the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority. The seized shipment of 9,081 cartons and eight packets of cigarettes held an unpaid-duty and Goods and Services tax value of $776,550 and $62,280 (in Singapore dollars), respectively. ICA officers detected anomalies in a 20-foot container at Pasir Panjang Scanning Station and Singapore Customs arrested the men shipping the container the next day, the release said. Under the Customs and GST acts, parties deemed guilty can be fined up to 40 times the amount of the evaded duty and/or jailed for up to six years, the release said.

The Philippines recently lowered tariffs and increased its quota volumes for pork due to “surging” pork prices caused by the African swine fever, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a May 18 report. The measures “significantly” lowered the most favored nation tariff rates on fresh, chilled and frozen pork from the original 30% in-quota and 40% out-quota rates. The report includes a table outlining the new in-quota and out-quota tariff rates, which are expected to remain in effect for one year.

A former U.S. trade representative and a former deputy national security adviser agree that companies that do business in China are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as they will anger China if they disavow abuses in Xinjiang or Hong Kong, but could break U.S. law if they make clothes with Xinjiang cotton.

Vietnam is asking its steelmakers to increase production and limit exports to combat rising steel import prices, which have reached a 13-year high of $1,000 per ton, Nikkei Asia reported May 18. The main cause for the price spike has been China, the report said, which “commands the majority of global steel production.” Vietnam exported nearly 10 million tons of steel last year, the report said, “and the question remains whether the government interference will help keep a substantial portion of that volume within its borders.”

China has reached out to several members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership in the hopes of joining the trade agreement that was originally created to exclude it, Bloomberg reported May 17. Officials from Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and possibly others have had talks with the Chinese about the agreement initiated by the U.S. to balance China's growing power. President Donald Trump pulled out of the CPTPP in 2017; Japan subsequently took over and concluded negotiations the following year. China would be the largest economy in the pact if it were to join but faces an uphill battle as views of China have become increasingly negative in CPTPP member nations, the report noted.

Vietnam Customs charged Thao Khoa Import-Export Trading Service Co. with falsely declaring aluminum goods' names, codes and quantity, leading to underpaid taxes, CustomsNews reported May 18. Following an initial customs declaration by Thao Khoa saying that the unprocessed aluminum alloy shipment was 13.5 tonnes, a physical inspection by the Export Cargo Procedures Team at Saigon Port Zone 1 found that the shipment was more than 24 tonnes. The false declaration led to the company's prosecution by the customs agency.