India's Minister of State for Commerce and Industry has issued a statement on India's negotiating strategy and aims for the World Trade Organization Doha Round. Its principal goals are to protect the interests of India's farmers and to protect sensitive industrial sectors from the impact of tariff reductions or bindings.
India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced that in addition to seven Central Government Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and 12 State/Private Sector SEZs set up prior to the enactment of SEZ Act, 2005, formal approval has been accorded to 576 new proposals. A total of 114 SEZs are already exporting. Among other things, SEZs are intended to promote investment from domestic and foreign sources and promote exports of goods and services. Further details about SEZs are available here.
The Congressional Research Service has issued a summary of Brazil's World Trade Organization case against the U.S. cotton program. The summary describes the phases of the dispute through the June 17, 2010 "Framework Agreement, " including a discussion of provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill which may still make the U.S. vulnerable to WTO challenges.
On July 30, 2010, the U.S. and India signed an agreement on arrangements and procedures under the Agreement for Cooperation Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. These procedures will facilitate participation by U.S. firms in India’s expanding civil nuclear energy sector by enabling India's reprocessing of U.S.-obligated nuclear material at a new national reprocessing facility in India. According to the U.S. embassy in India, increased civil nuclear trade with this country will create thousands of new jobs for the U.S. economy.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology posts drafts and changes to foreign technical regulations for manufactured products which may be considered technical barriers to trade and are therefore required to be reported to the World Trade Organization, which distributes the information to WTO Member countries.
In the July 31, 2010 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted:
On July 30, 2010, China's Ministry of Health said at a news conference that efforts will be made to strengthen the tracking assessment system, and, in line with the opinions from all sectors and international standards, constantly revise and improve the 66 national safety standards on dairy products published by the ministry on March 26 this year.
In a July 29,2010 press release, the World Customs Organization announced a recent seizure by Pakistani officials of 90 kilograms of heroin in a container shipment bound for Europe. This seizure is the largest to date in a number of significant seizures made by the Port Control Unit in Karachi since the team was created under the auspices of the joint UNODC-WCO Container Control Programme (CCP). Units of the CCP are trained by experts from WCO Member Customs administrations with the support of UNODC personnel to profile containers on the basis of WCO risk indicators. The initial sites for CCP implementation in Pakistan were the container terminals in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest and busiest seaport and Port Qasim but now include an additional seven inland container terminals.
The World Customs Organization's Inspector General Mikuriya met with Vietnam’s Director General of Customs and its Finance Minister on July 29-30 in Hanoi. The Minister of Finance expressed his strong support for Customs modernization and the partnership approach with business. The Minister also pledged his commitment to improving Vietnam’s investment climate by working with business and enhancing coordination with other border agencies, including the single window project. The Minister requested assistance from the WCO in basing the country’s Customs reform program on global standards and best practices. Vietnam Customs informed Secretary General Mikuriya that they were trying to establish a trade compliance program as a first step towards an AEO program. In this regard, they welcomed the engagement and advice of the WCO Private Sector Consultative Group in establishing the program.
On July 28, 2010, China's Ministry of Commerce stated that China's work safety authorities will investigate and crack down on manufacturers operating illegally in the coming three months. The crackdown beginning from Aug. 1 will focus on sectors including mines, transportation, construction sites, manufacturers of dangerous chemicals, fireworks plants and smelting sector. Illegal operations mainly refer to manufacturers that run without permits or run with insufficient or overdue permits and against safety production laws and codes.