GHY Tradelines

(DFAIT)

The Honourable Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, today concluded a two-day trade visit to Argentina, where he met with political and business leaders to advocate more trade and job-creating partnerships between Canada and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay—the countries that make up the Mercosur customs union.

“Our government is committed to creating jobs and prosperity for Canadian workers and their families,” said Minister Fast. “My visit to Argentina was an opportunity to promote the mutual benefits of expanded trade and investment ties between us.”

During his visit to Buenos Aires, Minister Fast met with Argentina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Héctor Timerman to discuss Canada’s interest in concluding exploratory discussions toward deepened trade and investment with Mercosur, the Southern Common Market.

“Deepening and broadening Canada’s economic relationship with high-growth markets like Mercosur is a key part of our pro-trade plan for jobs, economic growth and long-term prosperity,” said Minister Fast.

Mercosur is a market of nearly 250 million consumers and has a combined GDP of almost $3 trillion. It also accounts for almost three quarters of total economic activity in South America. In 2011, bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and Mercosur reached more than $9.7 billion, which represents a 213% increase over the last decade.

“Canada-Mercosur exploratory trade talks are seeking to identify areas of mutual interest toward the potential negotiations of an agreement that would be mutually beneficial,” said Minister Fast.

Discussions to date have been productive. Two exploratory meetings between Canadian and Mercosur officials have already been held, with a third meeting expected to take place in Ottawa in May.

While in Argentina, Minister Fast also met with Julio de Vido, Minister of Federal Planning, Public Investment and Services, and Daniel Cameron, Secretary of Energy, to discuss Canada’s continued support of Canadian companies wishing to invest in Argentina. He met with members of the Canadian business community representing a variety of sectors, including energy, information and communications technologies, construction, industrial equipment, mining operations and pharmaceuticals. Minister Fast then met with Gerardo Werthein, Chief Executive Officer of Holding Caja de Ahorro y Seguro and Vice Chair Telecom Argentina, who leads one of the most influential and diversified family-owned groups of companies in Argentina.

“Canadian companies operate in a socially responsible manner and contribute to job creation and prosperity around the world,” said Minister Fast. Currently, companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange operate more than 200 mineral projects in Argentina. At the end of 2010, the stock of Canadian direct investment in Argentina stood at $2.5 billion, an increase of 25.8% compared to 2009.

Minister Fast also promoted CANDU technology for Argentina’s planned expansion of its nuclear-generating capacity and noted that Canada has had a very successful relationship with Argentina on nuclear power going back more than 30 years.

Minister Fast attended the opening of Goldcorp’s new office in Buenos Aires. Goldcorp, one of the largest Canadian investors in the country, is opening a new site at Cerro Negro, in Santa Cruz province. There, as part of its commitment to corporate social responsibility, the company will implement several local community-development initiatives, including the construction and expansion of local schools, job training and scholarship awards. Finally, Minister Fast also met with senior executives of Techint, Argentina’s largest investor in Canada, which provides engineering, procurement and construction services in Canada and around the world.

In 2011, bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and Argentina reached almost $2.9 billion, up 55.2% from 2010.
 

(EHS Today – Sandy Smith)

Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis and Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels held a teleconference March 20 to announce the final rule for the long-awaited update to OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard that aligns it with the United Nations’ Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS).

Noting that the Hazard Communication standard, published in 1983, was referred to as “the right to know,” Solis announced that the revised Hazard Communication standard is “the right to understand.”

Haz Comm 2012, as it is known at the agency, communicates information about chemical hazards in the workplace “more simply, clearly and effectively,” said Solis. It “empowers [workers] with the best information about the chemicals they handle in the workplace,” she added. Read more here.
 

(John Gallagher — Detroit Free Press)

As ordered, the Detroit International Bridge Company, owner of the Ambassador Bridge, today wired $16 million to the Michigan Department of Transportation to pay to complete the long-delayed Gateway project.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards had ordered MDOT earlier this month to take control of the Gateway project from DIBC, and told the bridge company to deposit the money, which is the figure the judge estimated would be needed to finish Gateway.

Under the terms of Edwards’ order, if finishing Gateway costs more, the bridge company will have to pay it. If it costs less, the bridge company will get a refund. Read more here.
 

(CBSA)

This memorandum refers to the application of anti-dumping duty to importations of certain copper pipe fittings originating in or exported from the United States of America, the Republic of Korea and the People’s Republic of China and the application of countervailing duty to importations of certain copper pipe fittings originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China.
 

(The Globe and Mail – Geoffrey York)

In a dining room above a giant supermarket, several dozen South Africans are sipping wine and sampling some of Canada’s tastiest food exports: smoked salmon, maple syrup, wild rice and more. “There’s maple syrup in all the desserts,” a trade commissioner tells them as they mingle.  It’s the first time the local Canadian trade office has held a “Canadian food night” in Johannesburg, and it signals a growing effort to diversify Canada’s food exports away from its traditional markets in the United States and Asia.

The export campaign is producing some successes – including a steady rise in Canadian meat exports to South Africa – but it also faces a new obstacle. After years of grumbling, the South African government is threatening to file a complaint against Canadian pork exports at the World Trade Organization, sources say. Read more here.
 

(Reuters – Tom Miles and Doug Palmer)

An unprecedented legal attack on Chinese trade policy may fall short of its immediate goal of increasing rare earth supplies, but it is just one of several battles in a bigger campaign: defense of the old economic order against China.

The complaint brought by the European Union, the United States and Japan – that China is illegally choking off exports of rare earth metals – is the first coordinated litigation at the World Trade Organization by three of the four top trading powers against the fourth.

Long an unloved constituent of specialist commodity markets, rare earths have burst into prominence as irreplaceable inputs for a range of hi-tech products, from iPads to wind turbines, hybrid car batteries and precision-guided weapons.

The fact that China’s exports plummeted just as demand took off cannot be a coincidence, its accusers say, and they are confident they have a watertight and well-documented case.  “We met at least a half a dozen times with the other countries that joined us. And I’m not talking about ‘howdy dowdy’ kind of meetings. These were three and four day-long sessions of going through legal issues,” one U.S. official said.  “Literally thousands of pages of Chinese language documents needed to be found, translated and analyzed.” Read more here.
 

(CSCB)

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) would like your feedback on proposed changes to the Health of Animals Act intended to strengthen livestock and poultry traceability in Canada.
 

(CBP)

Harmonized System Update (HSU) 1203 was created on March 15, 2012 and contains 116,214 ABI records and 23,379 harmonized tariff records.

Modifications include those mandated by the U.S. Korea Free Trade Agreement, effective March 15, 2012. These changes can be found on the United States International Trade Commission’s, USITC website.

(The wrong link was posted in the original message. I apologize. The correct link is listed above)

Adjustments required by the authentication of the 2012 Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) are included.

The modified records are currently available to all ABI participants and can be retrieved electronically via the procedures indicated in the CATAIR. For further information about this process, please contact your client representative. For all other questions regarding this message, please contact Jennifer Keeling via email at Jennifer.Keeling@dhs.gov.