GHY Tradelines

span style=”font-size:85%;”(State University of New York College at Plattsburgh)/spanbr /br /David Jacobson, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, will be speaking at the 2010 Global Supply Chain Management Conference, being held from June 15-17, 2010 on the Campus of SUNY Plattsburgh. This is an exciting addition to the list of presenters/speakers.br /br /The conference website is a href=”http://www.supplychainmanagementconference.com/” target=”_blank”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Journal of Commerce Online – R.G.Edmonson)/spanbr /br /strongAgency, trade to develop structure for Automated Commercial Environment/strongbr /br /Customs and Border Protection is setting up the ACE Business Office to work out the needs of the Automated Commercial Environment. Dan Baldwin, assistant commissioner for international trade, said the business office will work with the trade community to clearly define what they want ACE to do before turning the project over to the Customs information technology office to develop the actual software.br /br /“We decided to create an office to give ACE more structure,” Baldwin said. “Then we can tell the IT people ‘This is what you need to build,’ so we can tell Congress ‘this is what we intend to do and how much money we’ll need to do it.’”br /br /The effort stems from problems Customs has had in getting the $3 billion ACE fully operational. In 2001, Congress put ACE on a 10-year development cycle that runs out in fiscal 2011. Now Customs will have to return to Congress to receive further funding. Customs plans to fund ACE piece-by-piece. The new strategy is to ask Congress for enough money to complete specific projects. Making the business case is what the ACE Business Office will do, Baldwin said. Read more a href=”http://www.joc.com/government-regulation/customs-establishes-ace-business-office”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(WTO – Matthew S. Yeo, Steptoe amp; Johnson LLP)br //spanbr /One important point of intersection between natural resources and the multilateral trading system concerns the treatment of natural resource subsidies under the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. Many countries retain sovereign ownership of natural resources and allow commercial enterprises to exploit these resources under different types of compensation arrangements. The commodities that are thereby produced, or downstream products that are manufactured from those commodities, may become the target of anti-subsidy disciplines (such as countervailing duties) if there is an allegation that the government provided the natural resources on subsidized terms. What, then, does it mean for a government to provide a natural resource subsidy?br /br /The resolution of this question has important implications for international trade in natural resources and products that are produced with natural resource inputs. Countries that pursue economic development and diversification through the exploitation of sovereign natural resources may find that their exports become subject to countervailing duties in other countries or to an action under Part III of the SCM Agreement. One of the longest-running trade disputes in history, the softwood lumber dispute between the United States and Canada, is fundamentally a dispute about natural resource pricing. In addition, the question of how countries should price natural resources to avoid anti-subsidy disciplines is closely related to how a country should price natural resources to promote conservation and sustainable yields. Read more a href=”http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/publications_e/wtr10_yeo_e.htm”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Xinhua)/spanbr /br /A research report of China’s foreign trade sector Sunday predicted the world’s largest exporter would more than double its foreign trade volume by 2020. It also called on China to improve the quality of foreign trade sector and to lower import tariffs to promote the nation’s trade balance.br /br /The report, launched by the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Sunday at the ongoing 107th China Import and Export Fair, the country’s largest trade fair held in the southern city of Guangzhou, predicted the China’s foreign trade volume would hit 5.3 trillion U.S. dollars by 2020.br /br /Merchandise exports will top other countries and be 2.4 trillion U.S. dollars in 2020, 10.1% of the world total, while imports will reach 1.9 trillion U.S. dollars and rank second largest, accounting for 8.2% of the world total, according to the report, jointly compiled by researchers with think-tanks under the MOC, the Ministry of Finance, and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The report was seen by analysts and officials as a “road map” which lays out a theoretical basis for the reforms in China’s trade policies and mechanisms over the next decade. Read more a href=”http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2010-04/18/c_13257279.htm”here/a.

span style=”font-size:85%;”(Mondaq – Blake, Cassels amp; Graydon LLP)/spanbr /br /The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is currently engaged in consultations relating to export controls of goods or technology employing cryptography. The government is seeking information on the way in which different countries are interpreting the scope of an export licence exemption for products sold at the retail level to the general public. The consultation is in regards to those that have obtained a ruling or have received other supplementary information from the U.S., European or other Wassenaar Arrangement participating states on the operation of the exemption in that foreign country. These consultations are ongoing, with submissions by interested parties due by April 30, 2010.br /br /Canada restricts the export of certain goods and technology. Many such restrictions are found in Canada’s Export Control List. When a good or technology is captured by the Export Control List, the exporter must first obtain an export permit before shipping the good or technology abroad, although many restrictions do not apply to exports to the U.S. provided the goods or technology are used in the U.S. and not merely transferred to a third country through the U.S. Among other things, the government uses the Export Control List to bring into force commitments made by Canada as a party to various international agreements regulating the export of goods and technology. Read more a href=”http://www.blakes.com/english/view_bulletin.asp?ID=3890″here/a.br /br /strongRelated:/strong a href=”http://www.strtrade.com/wti/wti.asp?pub=0amp;story=34372amp;date=amp;company”Manufacturers Issue Recommendations for Long-Term Export Control Reforms/a span style=”font-size:85%;”(World Trade Interactive)/span

span style=”font-size:85%;”(FoodNavigator-USA.com – Caroline Scott-Thomas)/spanbr /br /The Canadian government may loosen the labeling rules for food products to qualify as ‘Products of Canada’, to allow for ingredients that are difficult to source in Canada. Minister of State for Agriculture Jean-Pierre Blackburn said on Monday that the government was committed to concluding consultations with industry and consumers about the labeling of Canadian processed foods.br /br /The present rule, put in place by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008, only allows foods that contain at least 98% Canadian-produced ingredients to be labeled ‘Product of Canada’. The law was meant to close a loophole that allowed any product to be labeled ‘Product of Canada’ as long as at least 51% of the production cost was met in Canada. This meant that some, or indeed all, of the ingredients could be produced elsewhere.br /br /But many food manufacturers have argued that the new rule unfairly limits the number of products that can claim to be Canadian. Read more a href=”http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Legislation/Canadian-government-may-loosen-Product-of-Canada-rules”here/a.