China, as a result of a Sept. 3 final ruling in its antidumping investigation, imposed duties on imports of phenol from the U.S., the European Union, North Korea, Japan and Thailand, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Sept. 4. China ruled that the dumping has “substantially damaged” its domestic industry. The duty rates range from 10.6% to 287.2%, and took effect Sept. 6 for a five-year period, China said.

Vietnam continues efforts to crack down on the country of origin fraud and transshipment schemes that have become especially more frequent since the ramping up of U.S.-China trade tensions, according to reports in CustomsNews, the self-described “mouthpiece” of Vietnam Customs.

China and Singapore signed a memorandum of understanding to improve the electronic customs certificates process for ships and shipping companies, according to a Sept. 5 report from Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency. The agreement will “boost customs clearance efficiency” and “reduce the burden of shipping enterprises and ships,” the report said.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade published detailed information and guidance on Australia's and the United Nations’ sanctions regimes, including a consolidated list of all sanctions targets. The page includes information on more than 20 of Australia's sanctions regimes, including specific actions that are prohibited and who is required to comply with the restrictions.

Singapore Customs introduced a new online trade service, Trade Finance Compliance (TFC), to “address compliance challenges” for certain companies and banks “when financing trade,” Singapore Customs said in a Sept. 5 press release. TFC, which operates on the country’s online Networked Trade Platform (NTP), is a joint project of Singapore Customs and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to address companies’ “inability to validate the underlying trade and the lack of reliable data to conduct price checks for non-commodity goods,” the press release said.

Japan submitted "opinions and questions" to South Korea regarding South Korea’s plans to remove Japan from its list of trusted trading partners, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said in a Sept. 3 press release. Japan said if South Korea does not provide clarification on its measures or does not answer Japan’s questions, Japan will view South Korea’s actions as “arbitrary and illegitimate countermeasures,” the press release said.

The U.S.-China trade war has damaged some Japanese manufacturing companies, Japan’s trade minister said during a Sept. 3 press conference, adding that the companies have lost revenue compared to previous years. Minister Hiroshige Seko said Japan’s manufacturing industry in April and June “fell below the previous year for the first time in two years,” according to an unofficial translation of the transcript of the press conference.

Singapore Customs arrested four men for failing to pay import duties on more than 1,300 cartons of cigarettes, Singapore said in a Sept. 2 press release. Officers searched a truck and a warehouse operated by the men and found more than 700 cartons of cigarettes hidden in the floorboards of the truck and more than 600 cartons of cigarettes in the warehouse, Singapore said. Singapore said the men evaded about $125,000 (in Singapore dollars) in taxes. Violators can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duties they evaded and jailed for up to six years, Singapore said.

Singapore is revising its end-user statement formats for bulk permits and individual permits for its Strategic Trade Scheme, Singapore Customs said in a Sept. 2 notice. Singapore said the formats have been standardized and will take effect Nov. 1. The formats are available for download on the Singapore Customs website.

Bangladesh will introduce a database of sanitary and phytosanitary measures to help importers and exporters better comply with global requirements on “food safety, plants and animal health issues,” according to a Sept. 1 report from New Age, a Bangladesh-based newspaper. In doing so, Bangladesh’s commerce ministry has asked traders and other industry representatives to detail common challenges they face when dealing with sanitary requirements, the report said. A common problem is a lack of knowledge about the requirements by other countries, the report said. Bangladeshi officials suspect some countries of using the requirements as non-tariff barriers, according to the report.