The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs on Sept. 20 published a new guidance document outlining new requirements for European Union companies trading with the U.K. following a no-deal Brexit. The guidance includes information on getting goods through customs once the U.K. leaves the EU, as well as changes to value-added tax and the VAT IT systems, transferring personal data, and complying with U.K. product standards.

The United Kingdom and Lebanon signed a trade continuity agreement Sept. 19 to ensure the countries trade under current terms after a potential no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31, the U.K. Department for International Trade said in a press release. The agreement would continue "tariff-free trade of industrial products together with liberalisation of trade in agricultural, agri-food and fisheries products," the UKDIT said. The U.K. is already covered by an association agreement between the European Union and Lebanon, but that could change when and if the U.K. leaves the EU with no transition deal in place.

European Union customs authorities seized about 10,000 more imports of counterfeit goods in 2018 compared with the previous year due to an increase in “small parcels in express and postal traffic,” the European Commission said Sept. 19. The seizures of the counterfeit imports, or items that infringed on intellectual property rights, included mostly cigarettes, toys, packaging material, labels and clothing, the commission said. China was the “main source” of the seized imports, which increased from about 57,000 in 2017 to 69,000 in 2018.

Germany introduced a plan to phase out glyphosate by Dec. 31, 2023, which would ban the use of herbicides containing the chemical, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service said in a report released Sept. 18. The date coincides with the European Union’s expiration of its approval of products that contain glyphosate, which will make the chemical illegal throughout the EU, the report said. Germany plans to begin its “glyphosate reduction strategy” in 2020, the USDA said, banning the chemical from being used in private gardens, parks, “specified nature protection zones” and public areas, such as schools and public sports grounds. U.S. food and agricultural exports may be affected starting Jan. 1, 2024, “when the maximum residue level for glyphosate will fall to the detection limit,” the USDA said.

Austria’s parliament has voted to block a recently signed free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, a Reuters report said. The parliamentary subcommittee vote, supported by nearly all Austrian political parties on the subcommittee, binds the Austrian government to veto the trade agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, which form the trading bloc. The EU declared in 2018 that a single veto would stop the deal from coming into force, Politico said. Austria is set to head to the polls again at the end of September, so the country could yet reverse course. French President Emmanuel Macron, however, has also pledged to block the Mercosur agreement over concerns about Amazon forest fires, Bloomberg has reported.

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs issued guidance documents detailing how to move goods through certain Strait of Dover and Irish Sea ports under transit and carnet procedures in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Port of Dover and Eurotunnel, as well as the port of Holyhead, cannot process ATA carnets, so the guidance documents include instructions on alternative sites where ATA carnet cargo may be taken for processing. A separate guidance document includes instructions on moving goods through the Port of Dover and Eurotunnel using common transit convention procedures after a no-deal Brexit, including in situations where “diversions are in place to manage freight traffic.” A recently leaked U.K. government study anticipates widespread and long-lasting delays for trucks crossing the Strait of Dover if the U.K. leaves the EU with no deal (see 1908190057).

In the Sept. 19 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The British government apologized after breaking a court ruling banning it from granting export licenses for defense goods to Saudi Arabia. In a Sept. 16 letter to the United Kingdom Committees on Arms Export Controls, Trade Secretary Lizz Truss said the U.K. allowed two “inadvertent breaches” of the license ban.

In the Sept. 18 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Nations Security Council renewed sanctions on the Central African Republic until Jan. 21, 2020, in a Sept. 12 resolution. The resolution continues an arms embargo against the country but removes restrictions on certain exports, including protective clothing temporarily exported to the CAR by UN personnel, humanitarian aid workers or members of the media for personal use only; supplies of non-lethal military equipment for humanitarian use; and supplies of “small arms ... intended solely for use in international-led patrols.”