New digital Mercado Comun del Sur (MERCOSUR) certificates of origin will take effect May 1 in Argentina, according to an alert from Expeditors. Use of digital certificates had been set to take effect in November 2018, but was subsequently delayed twice, until March 1, then until May 1. The Argentine Ministry of Economy said the digital certificates “will have the same legal validity and identical value as those issued on paper,” and must be electronically signed according to parameters established by the Latin American Integration Association. The Ministry also said that “entities authorized to the exporter must” keep records of all certificates of origin, the certification number, the applicant and the date of issue. The notice said paper certificates may still be used for “certain occasions in which digital certification is not possible in order not to delay or hinder foreign trade operations.”
Canada is moving closer to new regulations that would create some new restrictions on transactions involving controlled goods moving to other countries, law firm McCarthy Tetrault said in a blog post. The proposed regulations "create a new control regime for Canadians engaged in 'brokering' related to transactions involving the movement of certain controlled goods, services or technology from one foreign country to another," the firm said. "This is the first time Canada has imposed such controls and companies that may be potentially involved in such transactions."
The Mexican Confederation of Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM) issued a circular April 12 correcting earlier information it disseminated on recent changes to the Mexican tariff schedule. The new circular says some tariff rate increases from 20 percent to 25 percent on goods of chapters 61, 62 and 63 will take effect May 6, not April 11 as it previously reported (see 1904110057), and remain in effect for 180 days. The circular was posted by the trade consultancy AJR Mexico.
The Canada Border Services Agency said maintenance outages are scheduled for the eManifest Portal, the Electronic Data Interchange and the CCS/CADEX system. There will be multiple outages to those systems on April 13 and 14, CBSA said in an emailed message.
The Mexico Secretariat of Economy issued two notices April 10 amending the Mexican tariff schedule and making related changes to the PROSEC sectoral promotion and IMMEX maquiladora programs. Notably, the notices reverse tariff cuts previously implemented for footwear, textiles and apparel in February. The changes were detailed in two circulars issued by the Mexican Confederation of Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM) the following day and posted by Mexican consultancy AJR Foreign Trade.
The Mexican Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit issued a notice April 10 amending its tax regulations related to the labeling of alcoholic beverages. According to a circular issued by the Confederation of Mexican Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM), among the changes are new provisions on the digital printing of labels that must be adhered to alcoholic beverages, as well as on how to obtain them. The amended regulations also now include provisions on circumstances under which labelers may be prohibited from using digitally printed labels.