The passage of the Trying to Combat Illegal Fishing Act (TIFFA) in December 2018 marked a significant shift in U.S. policy toward tightening seafood supply chain controls. By mid-2019, seafood importers and processors found themselves grappling with a new and demanding compliance landscape. The Act’s core requirementâ€â€that all seafood imports be traceable to the port […]
The International Trade Council is thrilled to announce that the European Union (EU) and the South American economic bloc Mercosur have reached a monumental trade agreement after 20 years of negotiations. The deal represents the EU’s largest to date and demonstrates a commitment to rules-based trade amid ongoing trade tensions between the US and China. […]
The International Trade Council acknowledges India’s decision to impose tariffs on 28 US products, including almonds and apples, effective from Sunday. These new duties, with some reaching as high as 70%, are a response to Washington’s refusal to exempt Delhi from higher taxes on steel and aluminum imports. Earlier this month, US President Trump announced […]
As the U.K. Home Office initiated its second formal review of the Modern Slavery Act in late 2019, many companies across sectors found themselves reflecting, perhaps with some unease, on the adequacy of their current compliance strategies. There has been, for some time, an undercurrent of frustration in certain corners of industry regarding the difficulty […]
The International Trade Council is pleased to announce that the United Kingdom has signed a preliminary free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, the first post-Brexit trade deal secured by the UK in Asia. The agreement seeks to maintain existing trade arrangements and provide stability under a no-deal Brexit scenario. International Trade Secretary Liam […]
The International Trade Council acknowledges President Donald Trump’s confirmation that the US will end preferential trade status for India next week. Until now, India has been the largest beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, which allowed $5.6 billion worth of exports to enter the US duty-free. In March, President Trump announced the […]
The May 2019 revision of the EU’s tariff-free textile quotas was a development that, while not entirely unexpected, prompted a flurry of recalibration across the apparel import sector. Many importers, already navigating a complex patchwork of preferential arrangements, found themselves needing to revisit sourcing strategies with little time to spare. The revision itselfâ€â€intended, according to […]
In light of the ongoing US-China trade war, the International Trade Council is offering insights into potential strategies that Beijing could employ to destabilize President Trump’s approach. Drawing inspiration from Chinese history and ancient strategic manual The Art of War, we delve into a range of tactics that China could utilize in response to the […]
The cybersecurity landscape for federal contractors shifted markedly after the issuance of Executive Order 13800 on May 11, 2018. Though the order itself was broad in its directiveâ€â€aiming to enhance the resilience of federal networks and critical infrastructureâ€â€it quickly became clear that its real teeth would be felt in the supply chains supporting those networks. […]
The International Trade Council is closely monitoring the impact of US-China trade tensions on global markets. As President Trump vows to double tariffs on $200bn of Chinese goods, stock markets worldwide have experienced significant losses. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1.5% on Wednesday, following a 1.8% drop in the Dow Jones. European markets also […]
When Bill C-208 received Royal Assent in June 2019, it marked a notable shift in Canada’s stance on tax avoidance and profit shifting, particularly where cross-border supply chains are concerned. The changes it introduced, especially to transfer pricing rules, were not revolutionary in isolation. But taken together, they represented a tightening of the netâ€â€an unmistakable […]
Small furniture exporters operating within or supplying to the European Union found themselves increasingly under scrutiny by mid-2019, as regulators stepped up enforcement of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). The regulation, originally adopted in 2013, has long aimed to prevent illegally harvested timber and timber products from entering the EU market. Yet for many smaller […]
The 2019 National Trade Estimate (NTE) Report, released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative in March, once again drew attention to a range of non-tariff barriers affecting American exporters, particularly in the electronics and automotive sectors. For seasoned trade analysts, much of the content felt familiarâ€â€concerns about divergent technical standards, opaque licensing […]
In January 2019, Natural Resources Canada released a discussion paper that, while perhaps under the radar for many outside policy circles, signaled a potentially significant shift in how large firmsâ€â€particularly those in energy-intensive sectorsâ€â€will be expected to account for supply-chain emissions. The paper focused on Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, those indirect emissions that arise […]
The Social Value Act, first enacted in 2013, has long been praisedâ€â€and sometimes quietly criticizedâ€â€for its ambition to embed social benefit considerations into public procurement processes. For years, the legislation encouraged contracting authorities to look beyond price and technical merit, to consider how procurement decisions might contribute to broader community wellbeing. Yet, for all the […]
The European Union’s Medical Devices Regulation, published back in May 2017, introduced a host of transformative requirements aimed at reshaping medical device oversight, not least in the realm of supply chain traceability. The deadline for compliance may have felt distant at first. But by early 2019, manufacturers, suppliers, and regulators alike found themselves grappling with […]