A top Japanese official asked Britain to avoid a no-deal Brexit scenario, saying it would hurt Japanese companies. “Japanese companies have great concerns and would like to avoid ‘leave without agreement,’” Isshu Sugawara, Japan’s trade minister, told the U.K.’s international trade minister during a recent meeting, according to an unofficial translation of a Sept. 25 press release.

The United Kingdom's Department for International Trade issued a Sept. 24 guidance on export controls for dual-use goods, software and technology, goods used for torture and “radioactive sources.” The guidance covers which dual-use items require export licenses, and provides information on nuclear exports and chemical exports, and how they may be impacted by sanctions, embargoes and trade restrictions.

In the Sept. 23 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs issued guidance on freight roll-on, roll-off (RORO) imports and exports between the U.K. and the EU if there's a no-deal Brexit. The guidance includes instructions for multiple parts of the process for moving goods from the U.K. to the EU, and vice versa.

In the Sept. 20 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs on Sept. 20 published a new guidance document outlining new requirements for European Union companies trading with the U.K. following a no-deal Brexit. The guidance includes information on getting goods through customs once the U.K. leaves the EU, as well as changes to value-added tax and the VAT IT systems, transferring personal data, and complying with U.K. product standards.

The United Kingdom and Japan signed a deal to temporarily recognize each other’s standards conformity assessment regimes after Brexit until a formal mutual recognition agreement is put into place, the U.K. Department for International Trade said. It covers electrical products, telecommunications and radio equipment, good laboratory practice (GLP) for chemicals and good manufacturing practice (GMP) for medicinal products, and provides that Japan and the U.K. recognize each other’s conformity testing. That means U.K. goods will be able to be tested in the U.K. against Japanese regulations and sold in Japan without additional testing, and vice versa. The agreement will take effect upon the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, and remain in effect until a U.K.-Japan MRA comes into force, the U.K. said.

In the Sept. 19 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

European Union customs authorities seized about 10,000 more imports of counterfeit goods in 2018 compared with the previous year due to an increase in “small parcels in express and postal traffic,” the European Commission said Sept. 19. The seizures of the counterfeit imports, or items that infringed on intellectual property rights, included mostly cigarettes, toys, packaging material, labels and clothing, the commission said. China was the “main source” of the seized imports, which increased from about 57,000 in 2017 to 69,000 in 2018.

Germany introduced a plan to phase out glyphosate by Dec. 31, 2023, which would ban the use of herbicides containing the chemical, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agriculture Service said in a report released Sept. 18. The date coincides with the European Union’s expiration of its approval of products that contain glyphosate, which will make the chemical illegal throughout the EU, the report said. Germany plans to begin its “glyphosate reduction strategy” in 2020, the USDA said, banning the chemical from being used in private gardens, parks, “specified nature protection zones” and public areas, such as schools and public sports grounds. U.S. food and agricultural exports may be affected starting Jan. 1, 2024, “when the maximum residue level for glyphosate will fall to the detection limit,” the USDA said.