Antwerp’s MPET Terminal will no longer accept physical customs documents “with [movement reference numbers] MRN for export containers,” beginning Aug. 12, according to an Aug. 1 email alert from Hapag-Lloyd. Paper customs documents without MRN are still required at the terminal, including military 302 documents, “export or T1 customs documents issued under an emergency procedure” and “carnet ATA documents,” the alert said. All customs documents with MRN must be registered in advance through the “C-Point eDesk application,” the alert said. Other terminals are expected to begin similar procedures in the “near future, Hapag-Lloyd said.
Russia is considering new bills that would counter anti-Russian sanctions through criminal charges and the creation of an “‘unreliable’ payment processors list,” according to a July 30 Lexology report and notices from the Russian State Duma.
Japanese and European Union officials in late June clarified certain provisions of the EU-Japan economic partnership agreement for a “smoother and more efficient implementation” of the agreement, according to a July 19 notice from KPMG and a July 17 notification from Japan Customs. The agreement was intended to simplify the import declaration provision of the agreement “by which preferential tariff treatment is claimed in Japan,” KPMG said. Among the changes are provisions that say importers are not required to provide an “additional explanation … concerning the originating status of the product if not available to the importer” and that the “absence of an explanation, in addition to the statement on origin, will not lead to a rejection of the claim or a denial of the preferential tariff treatment” under the agreement. KPMG said the changes “could help address some of the administrative burden and associated trade barriers” between the two countries.
Over the year since the European Union and the U.S. agreed to pursue trade talks, the two sides "have actually made some decent progress" on regulatory cooperation in pharmaceuticals and medical devices, but "where we are stuck is on industrial tariffs," said Sabine Weyand, director general for trade at the European Commission.