The following is excerpted from a 3 January 2013 news item by the World Trade Organization.
Laos informed the WTO on 3 January 2013 that it has ratified its membership agreement. Under WTO procedures, that means Laos will officially become the WTO’s 158th member on 2 February.
This item is available in its entirety at:
http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news13_e/acc_lao_08jan13_e.htm
The European Commission made the following report available on 8 January 2013:
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee on Customs Risk Management and Security of the Supply Chain
http://www.europolitics.info/pdf/gratuit_en/327651-en.pdf
The following is a 19 December 2012 news item by the World Trade Organization.
On 19 December 2012, the WTO issued panel reports in the disputes “Canada — Certain Measures Affecting the Renewable Energy Generation Sector” (complaint by Japan, DS412) and “Canada — Measures Relating to the Feed-in Tariff Program” (complaint by the European Union, DS426), respectively.
The reports are available on the WTO website at:
IFCBA welcomes its newest business member, Maroc Global Logistics, Casablanca, Morocco. For more information on Maroc Global Logistics, please refer to the Members section of the website.
The following is excerpted from a 17 December 2012 news item by the World Trade Organization.
The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), on 17 December 2012, established a panel to examine the complaint by China against United States’ countervailing and anti-dumping measures applied to Chinese exports.
Panel established on US/China dispute on countervailing and anti-dumping measures on Chinese products. Other requests involving Argentina and Dominican Republic were rejected. Mexico asked its request to be removed from the agenda.
The following is from the 18 December 2012 edition of Journal of Commerce.
Hong Kong, Korea commissioners agree on closer cooperation. Hong Kong, Korea commissioners agree on closer cooperation.
At the 30th Customs Cooperation Conference in Seoul, Korea, today, Clement Cheung, commissioner of Hong Kong Customs, and Joo Yung-sup, commissioner of the Korea Customs Service, agreed on closer cooperation between the two administrations in the future.
The following is from the 18 December 2012 edition of Journal of Commerce.
The floodgates have opened for U.S. investment in Russia. U.S. companies are moving quickly to carry out investment plans they made in anticipation of Russia’s joining the World Trade Organization, but they are still finding it a challenging market.
The following is an 18 December 2012 release by the World Trade Organization.
The eleventh review of the trade policies and practices of the United States of America takes place on 18 and 20 December 2012. The basis for the review is a report by the WTO Secretariat and a report by the Government of the United States of America.
The report is available on the WTO website at:
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp375_e.htm
Your fellow IFCBA members are very interested in what is going on in your country. The sharing of information about national affairs often provides useful information to assist in developing new programs, products and services for members. It was agreed at our last Board meeting that there would be mutual benefit if members were invited and encouraged to share information on a regular basis. To that end, we have created a simple form to facilitate the sharing of that information.From what is received, we will create a regular update that we will share with all members.
We know that many of our IFCBA association members have permanent staff. It was agreed at our last Board meeting that there would be mutual benefit if everyone shared contact information for these individuals. Therefore, we are requesting the names, job titles and email addresses of your permanent staff. If the staff member’s area of responsibility is not obvious from their job title, please include a short note outlining their responsibilities. From the information received, we will create a listing that we will share with all members. Thank you.
