The inaugural meeting of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Commission (FTC), held Nov. 19, concluded that the six-month-old Free Trade Agreement is working well and is already benefiting both countries, the U.S. Trade Representative said. U.S. exports to Colombia from May to Sept. were up more than 20 percent over the corresponding period last year, it said. The governments decided to consider tariff acceleration and to set time frames for establishing dispute settlement mechanisms and updating rules of origin. They also reviewed the work of committees set up to discuss technical barriers to trade, agriculture, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
The State Department, World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recently issued the following travel warnings, travel alerts, country specific information sheets, and disease outbreak-related information: State Department Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department decides, based on all relevant information, to recommend that Americans avoid travel to certain countries.
President Obama and the leaders of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations unveiled a new U.S.-ASEAN initiative to expand trade and investment ties at a meeting in Cambodia Nov. 19. The “U.S.-ASEAN Expanded Economic Engagement” (E3) initiative identifies specific cooperative activities to facilitate trade and investment, increase efficiency and competitiveness of trade flows and supply chains throughout ASEAN, and build greater awareness of the commercial opportunities of the U.S.-ASEAN economic relationship, the White House said. Furthermore, the initiative will lay the groundwork for ASEAN countries to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), it said.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a safety advisory to warn shippers and carriers of potential dangers and compliance issues arising from the sale of counterfeit airbags as replacement parts to consumers and repair professionals. PHMSA was recently alerted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the problem, it said. Although the NHTSA isn't aware of any fatalities or injuries caused by the counterfeit equipment, testing has shown malfunctions ranging from non-deployment of the air bag to expulsion of metal shrapnel when bags are deployed, PHMSA said. PHMSA said counterfeit airbags that are activated by pyrotechnic devices are unapproved explosives, and may not transported in the U.S.
The euro area saw an international trade in goods surplus of 9.8 billion euros ($12.4 billion) in September, as compared with a 1.7 billion-euro surplus last September, Eurostat said Friday. The euro area encompasses Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland. The first estimate for the September 2012 extra-EU27 trade in goods balance, however, was a 12.6-billion euro deficit, compared with around an 11-billion euro deficit in September 2011, Eurostat said. The EU 27 includes Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the U.K. From January to August 2012, the EU 27 deficit for energy rose from 252.5 billion euros last year to 277 billion this year, the report said. EU27 exports to most of its major partners grew this year except for India, it said. The largest increases were for exports to Russia, South Korea, the U.S. and Brazil, it said. But the import pattern was mixed, with the largest increases recorded for imports from the U.S. and Norway, and the biggest drops with India and Japan, it said. The EU27 trade surplus with the U.S. increased, while its trade deficit with China decreased. Germany had the largest trade surplus among EU countries, the U.K. the greatest deficit for January-August, it said.
The EU revised its import preference system, known as the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP), for developing countries most in need, the European Commission said Oct. 31. The GSP is intended to help developing countries by making it easier to export their products to the EU, it said. The document sets out specific tariff preferences granted under the GSP in the form of reduced or zero tariff rates, as well as the final criteria under which developing economies will benefit, it said.
The EU should launch free trade talks with Japan but suspend them if Japan doesn’t remove barriers in key sectors such as EU car sales, the European Parliament said Thursday. Its non-binding resolution stressed that non-tariff barriers (NTBs) create regulatory or traditional advantages for local businesses and are harder to get rid of than customs duties. Such barriers have in the past stopped EU businesses from taking full advantage of trade opportunities with Japan, it said. EU exports to Japan could rise by up to 71 percent if tariffs and NTBs are lowered as much as possible, it said. The resolution urged the EU to set “clear and measurable targets” for removing NTBs such as “zoning regulations,” restrictions on electric and hybrid vehicles and preferential treatment for Japan's ultra-light “kei cars.” Parliament also wants limits on access to Japanese markets in electronics, postal services and railway public procurement lifted, it said. The resolution calls for a review within a year of the start of talks to assess whether Japan has delivered clear results. If not, negotiations should be suspended, Parliament said.
The first year of the EU-Republic of Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has moved the economic relationship of the trading partners “in the right direction,” Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said at an Oct. 16 European Parliament workshop in Brussels. The pact is “far-reaching in its elimination of tariffs,” and four years from now, about 99 percent of EU trade will be duty-free, he said. The FTA addresses barriers to trade in services, giving Europe new access for exports of telecommunications, shipping, finance, legal and environmental services, he said. It also addresses investment barriers and regulatory roadblocks, particularly in key sectors such as automobiles, pharmaceuticals and electronics, he said.
The European Commission wants to update radio equipment laws to ensure manufacturers and importers comply with rules on interference avoidance, it said Oct. 17. The radio and telecommunications terminal equipment industry is “one of the few hi-tech sectors where the EU is a global leader,” and producers need more confidence that the sector can continue its successful growth, said Industry and Entrepreneurship Commissioner Antonio Tajani. The EC proposed to: (1) Strengthen compliance, so consumers have access to radio products that operate without interference. For instance, it said, market surveillance and customs officers could carry out better checks on the safety of products using more effective tools. (2) Clarify the legislation to spell out the obligations of manufacturers and importers. (3) Simplify the directive by cutting down on red tape. The proposal would also introduce several new provisions, such as ensuring that software can only be used with radio equipment after the compliance of that particular combination of software and equipment has been shown; and requiring interoperability with accessories such as chargers. Changes to the directive need approval from the Council of Ministers and European Parliament.
The International Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations and the European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services endorsed a joint position paper on mandating container weighing in ports, FIATA said. The organizations said in the paper that they have “considered with great interest” the recent debate on misdeclaration of weights in container transport. Some maritime interests, with the support of the Danish and Dutch governments, have called for the International Maritime Organization’s Safety of Life at Sea regulations to be changed to ensure that the actual weight of a loaded container is verified prior to vessel loading, but there's no consensus on that, they said. While FIATA and CLECAT don't oppose giving the issue some attention, “we are not convinced that a regulatory approach to making the verification of container weights mandatory will help increase safety in the supply chain substantially,” they said. The discussion is too focused on a relatively small risk instead of taking a wider look at the whole process of shipping containers, they said. The focus of those who started the debate should be on lashing the containers on the stack; carriers' maintenance procedures; and the fact that it's common practice that around 10% of all containers loaded on a ship will end up on a stack different than on the stowage plan, they said. FIATA and CLECAT questioned whether there's enough evidence about the scale and causes of misdeclared container weights to justify new rules. Weighing all containers “is neither practical nor desirable,” they said. At the conference, FIATA's Multimodal Transport Institute also approved a paper on transport emissions that will “catapult FIATA to the core of the political debate on sustainable logistics,” it said.