Vietnam’s prime minister ordered the country’s government to find ways to expand trade relations with its “key partners,” including by “removing barriers” to entry into the country of foreign investment, according to a July 15 report from Vietnam's Customs mouthpiece Customs News. At a July 13 government meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc heard reports of the country’s assessment of trade relations between Vietnam and several “big partners,” including the U.S., China, South Korea, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan. The country is aiming to “build sustainable and balanced trade relations with partners, to combat trade frauds, and fraudulence of goods origin,” the report said. The prime minister asked Vietnam’s ministries to introduce new policies related to “trade, monetary matters, finance-banking, IT and cyber security in order to match with advanced international standards,” the report said.

The dispute between Japan and South Korea over Japan’s export restrictions on advanced technology materials will be raised at the World Trade Organization, according to a July 15 report from The Korea Herald. The report cited a statement from South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, which said the issue has been named as a formal agenda item of the July 23-24 WTO General Council. The move came at the request of South Korea, the report said. The announcement follows Japan’s decision to restrict exports and licensing policies of certain “controlled items” and technologies to South Korea (see 1907010020).

India is increasing import duties on certain Chinese tires for the next five years, according to a July 10 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The additional tariff will range between about 9 percent and 17.5 percent, the report said, and will cover eight tariff categories on all “China-sourced radial” tires. The tariffs will apply to “outsized tyres typically required by buses or trucks” and is aimed at helping to boost India’s domestic tire manufacturers. A 12 percent to 18 percent import levy already applied to China-made truck and bus radial tires has been in place since 2017.

China’s and Belarus’s Mutual Recognition Arrangement officially takes effect July 24, according to an unofficial translation of a notice from China’s General Administration of Customs. The arrangement will improve customs relations between the two countries, including reducing document reviews, lower inspection rates, higher inspection priorities for goods being shipped between the two countries and “fast customs clearance,” China said.

Singapore Customs issued an advisory on best practices for imports and how to comply with the country’s customs laws, Singapore said in a July 11 notice. The notice contains information on which items are subject to the country’s Goods and Services Tax, when permits are required, and a series of common compliance violations and red flags as examples of what to avoid.

The U.S. is working with Hong Kong to increase audits of imports and exports, said Kevin Kurland, director of Commerce’s Office of Enforcement Analysis, at the Bureau of Industry and Security annual export controls conference July 10. Kurland said the cooperation has led to a “record number of detentions” in the past year as both sides have more strictly enforced and audited export and import controls. “We’re working with them,” Kurland said, adding that Commerce wants to make sure “our systems are complementary.”

Vietnam is increasing customs enforcement and oversight of imported and exported “loudspeakers,” saying the speakers have recently been found to be used to smuggle drugs into the country, according to a July 9 report from Vietnam Customs' mouthpiece CustomsNews. Customs said it will increase inspections and “intensify” its screening methods of cabinet and mobile loudspeakers. The report specifically mentions speakers being imported from “targeted areas producing, trading and transporting drugs” such as China, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, South America and Africa.

The Philippines reduced import tariffs on mechanically deboned or mechanically separated poultry by 5 percent for chicken and 20 percent for “frozen whole turkey,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a notice published July 8. The rates were previously set at 40 percent due to the country’s recent passage of the Rice Tariffication Law, the notice said. The changes took effect June 13 and extend until Dec. 31, 2020, the notice said.

China’s National Medical Products Administration issued guidelines for the imports of reference products of biomedicines for clinical trials, according to a July 5 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Among the key points in the guidelines, China is urging applicants to import “original drugs already approved by China for general import” when they conduct “equivalence tests on their proposed biosimilar products.” In addition, if the location where the imported drug was produced differs “from that of the drug previously approved for import,” the applicant is required to “demonstrate the consistency of the drug across its various production bases or conduct research to establish such consistency,” the report said. In either case, the applicant must submit a “supplemental application” to the NMPA’s Center for Drug Evaluation. Drugs that are sourced from an “unapproved location” will not be allowed as part of a clinical trial until the center “has duly accredited it,” the report said.

South Korea criticized Japan’s recent decision to increase restrictions on certain technology exports to South Korea, calling the move “a form of political retaliation” and threatening retaliatory action, according to a July 5 report from The Korea Herald posted on the Asia News Network website. Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced plans to increase export restrictions on high-tech items used for smartphones and chips, effective July 4. The move will impact large South Korean technology companies such as Samsung and LG Display (see 1907010020). South Korea’s National Security Council called the move a violation of international law and “vowed active diplomatic countermeasures” against Japan, the news report said. South Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki also said the country plans to take “corresponding measures,” including filing a complaint with the World Trade Organization, according to the report.