Taiwan lowered Most Favored Nation tariffs on certain agricultural goods from Japan in a bid to “normalize” the Taiwan-Japan trade relationship, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report issued July 31. The two countries’ trade relationship is marred by the 2018 “anti-Fukushima food referendum,” the USDA said, which kept in place a ban on Fukushima agricultural exports to Taiwan for two years. Taiwan is hoping the tariff reduction helps it earn Japanese support for joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the report said. The tariff changes were passed by Taiwan’s legislature July 2.

Singapore is issuing a new “strategic goods control list” to bring Singapore trade controls “up to date” with the 2018 Wassenaar Arrangement's Munitions List and the 2018 European Union Control List of Dual-Use Items, Singapore customs said in an Aug. 1 notice. The list includes new controls, removes other controls and includes “editorial changes for consistency and clarity of controls,” Singapore said. The new controls will take effect Oct. 1.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet with Japan and South Korea in an effort to ease trade tensions between those two countries, he said July 30. Pompeo, traveling to a Thailand summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said both Japan and South Korea are “great partners of ours” and that “we will encourage them to find a path forward” and “get to a good place.” He plans to meet with Japan's Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Kono and South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha.

Japan is expected to pass a bill to remove South Korea from its so-called "whitelist" of trusted trading partners as the two countries grow more entrenched in their ongoing trade dispute, according to a July 30 report from The Korea Herald.

India is reducing or exempting its Goods and Services Tax on electric cars, charging stations and certain electric buses, KPMG said in a July 29 report. The changes will reduce the GST rate for electric vehicles from 12 percent to 5 percent, reduce the rate for charging stations for electric vehicles from 18 percent to 5 percent, and will exempt all electric buses hired by local governments from the GST, KPMG said. The changes were announced July 27 and will take effect Aug. 1.

Vietnam’s automated customs clearance system has launched in every customs office throughout the country and the nation has cut down on “administrative procedures in the field,” Vietnam's Customs deputy director general said July 29, according to a report from Vietnam Plus. Deputy Director General Hoang Viet Cuong spoke during a “consultation seminar” on a draft circular on customs risk management, highlighting the need “to build the circular in order to facilitate exports-imports and control law abidance in the field.” Claudio Dordi, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Trade Facilitation Program, had praise for Vietnam's efforts in trade facilitation, and said the circular will improve business transparency and help the country “effectively realise free trade agreements,” according to the report.

Chinese importers have recently been upping purchases of U.S. agricultural products, according to a report from China’s state run Xinhua news service. “Since July 19, some Chinese firms have inquired with U.S. suppliers about the new purchases of U.S. farm produce including soybeans, cotton, pork and sorghum. Currently, a batch of deals have been made in line with market conditions,” Xinhua said. “The Chinese enterprises involved have applied for the lifting of additional tariffs on some of the U.S. farm produce, and the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council will handle their applications according to stipulated procedures.” So far, millions of tons of U.S. soybeans have been shipped to China, the report said, tying the recent activity to talks held between President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping in June.

Thailand is extending a program that allows companies to voluntarily disclose and correct unintentional underpayments of customs duties and be eligible for penalty exemptions, according to a July 26 KPMG report. The program, extended until April 30, 2020, will give companies that disclose underpayments an “exemption from customs penalties” and reduce their monthly customs surcharge rate, KPMG said. Thailand will reduce the surcharges from 1 percent to .25 percent if the disclosure is made within one year after the importation, to .50 percent if the disclosure is made within two years, and to .75-percent if the disclosure is made within three years, the report said. The exemption will not impact companies’ value-added tax surcharges and penalties, the report said. Businesses may be ineligible for the program if they are “subject to a customs post-clearance audit” or are being investigated for customs violations, according to the report.

Guangzhou Customs in China will only accept digital versions of the “Customs Broker Power of Attorney Agreement” starting Aug. 1, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said in a July 23 report. The electronic version must be signed by the “customs declaration enterprise” and the “consignor (or consignee) of the imported/exported goods,” the report said. Guangzhou will then require it to be submitted through the region’s “customs clearance system,” the report said.

China will impose antidumping duties on certain stainless steel products imported from the European Union, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, the country’s Ministry of Commerce announced in a July 23 press release. China said it is being “substantially damaged” by dumped imports of “stainless steel billet and hot-rolled stainless steel plate/coil” originating in the EU and the three other countries, and will impose antidumping duties ranging from 18.1 percent to 103.1 percent on these products. The duty rates will be in effect for five years, starting July 23, China said. The ruling stems from an investigation China began on July 23, 2018, the ministry said.