Japan will officially phase out its beef imports special safeguard and pork imports safeguard from World Trade Organization member countries beginning April 1, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report released Jan. 6. Japan said it is eliminating the safeguard because “virtually all imports” of beef and pork are now covered by trade agreements with “separate safeguard mechanisms,” but said a “special safeguard for pork will remain.”

The European Commission recently added Mongolia to its list of countries under the European Union’s registered exporter system, according to a Jan. 3 KPMG post. The change allows Mongolia to participate in the EU’s system of certification of origin of goods that applies in the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, according to the commission.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade recently launched websites to tackle e-commerce concerns related to illegal transactions, “unsatisfactory” purchase disputes and reporting on “general e-commerce problems,” according to a Jan. 6 Hong Kong Trade Development Council report. The release of the websites is part of a larger effort by Vietnam to target counterfeit trade online and intellectual property violations, the report said. The websites are also designed to improve information sharing between Vietnamese government agencies for enforcement, HKTDC said.

China recently announced it will renew a program offering full value-added tax refunds on “domestic equipment purchases” by certain approved mainland companies and “foreign invested” research and development centers, according to a Jan. 3 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The foreign-invested companies must be approved by China’s Commerce Ministry, the report said. The VAT program will continue until Dec. 31, 2020.

China’s General Administration of Customs issued its “Customs Certified Enterprise Standards” for cross-border e-commerce “platform enterprises” and “express carrier operators,” China said in a notice released Dec. 31, according to an unofficial translation. The standards, which take effect March 1, must be adhered to by any cross-border e-commerce platform enterprise that applies for the application of customs certification enterprise management.

Vietnamese companies still face a range of non-tariff barriers in the European Union despite signing a free trade agreement in June (see 1906260068), according to a Jan. 1 report appearing in Customs News, the mouthpiece of Vietnam Customs. The barriers are a “major problem,” a Vietnamese officials said, according to the report. Companies are having issues meeting “very stringent environmental, quality, and technical standards” and are having trouble grasping “requirements of EU businesses,” the report said. Vietnam is working to provide “warnings and suggestions for solutions” to domestic companies to help them meet “general requirements” for EU customers and countries, the report said.

Hong Kong’s Trade and Industry Department released a list of 19 entities that are exempt from certain conditions and licensing requirements for air shipments of “strategic commodities,” according to a Jan. 2 notice. The exemptions, announced as part of Hong Kong’s “Air Transhipment Cargo Exemption Scheme for Specified Strategic Commodities,” applies to airlines, ground handling agents and freight forwarders that are “successfully registered” and were granted a certificate of exemption by the head of the Trade and Industry Department, Hong Kong said. The entities include UPS, FedEx, DHL Aviation, Japan Airlines and others.

China is banning pigs, boars and related products from Indonesia after reports of an African swine fever outbreak in the country, China’s General Administration of Customs said in a notice released Dec. 30, according to an unofficial translation. All illegally imported pigs or boars will be “destroyed” by Chinese customs, the notice said, and violators will be subject to penalties.

China’s General Administration of Customs released guidance and more information about China’s plans to reduce import tariffs on more than 850 items in 2020 (see 1912230051), according to a notice released Dec. 30. The agency said it will soon issue a 2020 edition of the “Import and Export Tariff of the People's Republic of China,” and has published on its customs “portal” a “Catalogue for the Declaration of Customs Import and Export Commodities” regarding the tariff reductions, according to an unofficial translation. The customs administration also said it has adjusted “relevant customs commodity numbers” to “effectively implement the tentative tax rates.”

China’s General Administration of Customs updated the “message format” for its import and export declaration forms, the agency said in a Dec. 31 notice, according to an unofficial translation. The update allows entities to “generate electronic data messages” to the agency, the notice said. China said the update is related to plans to start a two-step import declaration program (see 1908150031).