Austria’s parliament has voted to block a recently signed free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, a Reuters report said. The parliamentary subcommittee vote, supported by nearly all Austrian political parties on the subcommittee, binds the Austrian government to veto the trade agreement with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, which form the trading bloc. The EU declared in 2018 that a single veto would stop the deal from coming into force, Politico said. Austria is set to head to the polls again at the end of September, so the country could yet reverse course. French President Emmanuel Macron, however, has also pledged to block the Mercosur agreement over concerns about Amazon forest fires, Bloomberg has reported.

In the Sept. 18 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The British government apologized after breaking a court ruling banning it from granting export licenses for defense goods to Saudi Arabia. In a Sept. 16 letter to the United Kingdom Committees on Arms Export Controls, Trade Secretary Lizz Truss said the U.K. allowed two “inadvertent breaches” of the license ban.

In the Sept. 17 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Nations Security Council renewed sanctions on the Central African Republic until Jan. 21, 2020, in a Sept. 12 resolution. The resolution continues an arms embargo against the country but removes restrictions on certain exports, including protective clothing temporarily exported to the CAR by UN personnel, humanitarian aid workers or members of the media for personal use only; supplies of non-lethal military equipment for humanitarian use; and supplies of “small arms ... intended solely for use in international-led patrols.”

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs issued two guidance documents Sept. 16 highlighting special tariff classification and customs procedures that allow importers to delay or save on duty payments. One guidance lists situations wherein importers may pay a reduced rate of duty, such as re-importation of goods previously exported, importation for processing or repair, educational and cultural goods, medical goods, and printed and promotional goods, among other things. A second details ways in which importers can avoid immediately paying duties, such as through a duty deferment account, warehousing, temporary imports or moving through under union transit.

In the Sept. 13 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The Czech Republic is preparing to amend its value-added tax law after the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled against it in a case of a Czech taxpayer who avoided paying taxes on an export, according to a Sept. 12 post from KPMG. In the case, the taxpayer did not believe the transaction was subject to VAT “because the goods were exported,” the post said. Czech authorities challenged this assertion, saying the taxpayer did not satisfy the precondition for a VAT-exempt sale, which requires the export to be “released into a customs regime” to meet exemption status. The CJEU ruled that “entitlement to a VAT exemption cannot be conditioned upon releasing the goods into a certain customs regime, but instead it is sufficient that the taxpayer proved that the goods were actually delivered to a third country.” In response, the Czech Republic is preparing to include in its VAT laws “a measure that would allow for the possibility to prove entitlement to a VAT exemption on export by evidence other than a customs declaration.”

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs recently posted a new webinar to help U.K. companies prepare for Brexit. The hourlong webinar covers five “key areas” that U.K. businesses must be aware of to keep trading goods when the U.K. leaves the EU: applying for an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number, preparing to make customs declarations, transitional simplified procedures, entry summary declarations, and paying customs duty, VAT and excise duties.

The United Kingdom recently updated several export control general licenses after a review of licensing of exports to Hong Kong, it said in a notice to exporters. The updated general licenses cover dual-use items to Hong Kong, transshipment of dual-use goods through Hong Kong, and the open general trade control license for category C goods. The updates became effective Sept. 13.