China's Ministry of Commerce reports that benefiting from the full completion of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA), bilateral trade between China and ASEAN in the first half of this year grew 54.7% while the average growth of Chinese foreign trade in the same period was 43.1%.
GOV.cn reports that the People's Bank of China , or the central bank, and Hong Kong's renminbi clearing bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, on July 19, 2010 signed a revised Settlement Agreement on the Clearing of Renminbi Businesses in Hong Kong. As a result of the agreement, "there will no longer be restrictions on banks in Hong Kong in establishing renminbi accounts for and providing related services to financial institutions; and individuals and corporations will be able to conduct renminbi payments and transfers through the banks."
The United Nations Codex Alimentarius Commission has set new limits for the amount of melamine allowed in baby formula, other foods, and animal feed without causing health problems.
The World Customs Organization reports that government, business and civil society representatives gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland at the IMD Business School campus on July 7 and 9, 2010 to discuss ways in which to foster an equitable trade system, sustainable development and healthy global governance. The panel composed of trade experts agreed that as each region has its specific dynamics, the highly institutionalized European model is not necessarily applicable to other regions. In practice, what is happening is often a series of bilateral agreements or loose regional arrangements rather than EU-type regional integration.
The European Commission has published a summary of the proceedings from a March 2010 conference on EU policy towards developing countries. Among other things, the proceedings discuss the outlook for the EU's public consultation on its GSP scheme.
The World Customs Organization is organizing the Second Technology and Innovations Forum in Cairo, Egypt. In addition to demonstrating a wide range of new and emerging technologies, this year’s Forum focuses on engaging all relevant stakeholders in the discussion on the efficient use of technology at the border. The forum will be held on November 2-4, 2010 in Cairo.
In the July 16, 2010 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union, the following trade-related notices were posted:
The European Chemicals Agency is seeking comments by August 22, 2010 on the harmonized classification and labeling of 4-tert-Butylbenzoic acid and by August 5, 2010 for Leucomalachite Green. The comment request is part of the EU Regulation on Classification, Labeling and Packaging of substances and mixtures (CLP Regulation), which allows individual EU Member States and industry to propose harmonized classification and labeling of substances (e.g. as mutagenic, carcinogenic, etc.).
The Canada Border Services Agency revised Memorandum D15-2-49 on July 16, 2010, to reflect the Canadian International Trade Tribunal’s January 2010 decisions continuing the countervailing and antidumping duty orders for certain carbon steel fasteners originating in or exported from China and Chinese Taipei and rescinding them for certain stainless steel fasteners originating in or exported from Chinese Taipei.
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. Sign up for free NIST service here. Notifications for 07/16/10 include: