GHY Tradelines

(Business Standard)

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) will focus this year on non-tariff measures (NTMs) which are used by several countries to protect domestic producers, an issue consistently being raised by India in the multi-lateral trade meetings.

“Non-tariff measures [i.e. Policy measures, other than tariffs, that can potentially affect trade in goods] and services regulations are less transparent than tariffs. Some of them are in place for legitimate reasons…. Others are mainly used to protect domestic producers,” the WTO said in a statement posted on its website.

The WTO said it has initiated a debate: “Looking beyond international cooperation on tariffs” in the run-up to finalisation of trade report 2012. Read more here.
 

(CPSC via Marketwire)

Stepped up efforts by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to be more proactive have resulted in hundreds of millions of violative or dangerous units of products being stopped at U.S. ports and prevented from ever reaching the hands of consumers. [...]

Port surveillance is not new. Imported products have long been screened at the port by CPSC and CBP. However, since its creation in 2008, CPSC’s import surveillance and inspection team, has steadily increased the size of its staff at some of the largest U.S. ports of entry, at CPSC’s headquarters and at a CBP operations center.

“The marketplace of imported consumer goods has expanded rapidly in recent years requiring CPSC to take an increasingly global view of consumer product safety,” said Carol Cave, Director of the Office of Import Surveillance and Inspection. Read more here.
 

(Ottawa Business Journal)

A new Canada-U.S. border crossing initiative is expected to lead to new business for IT companies, according to the federal government.

The Canada Border Services Agency issued a press release Sunday inviting suppliers to “familiarize themselves” with the perimeter security plan, signed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama in December.

Some of the announced measures will include accepting checked luggage from the other country without the need of extra screening, expanding the NEXUS frequent traveller program that allows streamlined check-in, and harmonizing the data requirements ahead of cargo arriving at the border. Read more here.
 

(CITT via Marketwire)

The Canadian International Trade Tribunal today initiated a preliminary injury inquiry into a complaint by National Silicates Partnership, of Etobicoke, Ontario, that it has suffered injury as a result of the dumping and subsidizing of potassium silicate solids from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Tribunal’s inquiry is conducted pursuant to the Special Import Measures Act as a result of the initiation of dumping and subsidizing investigations by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

On March 6, 2012, the Tribunal will determine whether there is a reasonable indication that the alleged dumping and subsidizing have injured the domestic industry. If so, the CBSA will continue its investigations and, by April 5, 2012, will issue preliminary determinations. If these preliminary determinations indicate that there has been dumping or subsidizing, the CBSA will then continue its investigations and, concurrently, the Tribunal will initiate a final injury inquiry. Anti-dumping or countervailing duties will be imposed only if the Tribunal finds that dumped or subsidized products are injuring or threatening to injure the Canadian producers.
 

(World Trade Interactive)

The Bureau of Industry and Security has issued a final rule that, effective Jan. 9, imposes a license requirement on exports and reexports to all destinations other than Canada of two types of microwave and millimeter wave electronic components that have uses in military radar systems as well as in civilian radar and telecommunications systems. Read more here.