The Ministry of Trade has issued Minister of Trade Regulation No. 59 of 2020 (“Regulation 59”) which is an amendment to Minister of Trade Regulation No. 118/M-DAG/PER/12/2015 on Import Provisions for Complementary Goods, Goods for the Purpose of Market Testing, and After-Sales Service (“Regulation 118”).
The Thai Customs Department has launched a Customs Trader Portal, an online web application that gives business operators a convenient option to register as an importer, exporter, and an operator who conducts customs formalities. This platform, implemented on 1 July 2021 for Thai individuals, is more aligned with the current digital economy. It also provides a third registration option for Thai individuals to register as customs formality operators. Previously, there were only two methods manual and E-customs.
The UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement entered into force as a replacement for the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement due to Brexit, to leverage Vietnam-UK trade relations. To implement preferential tariff treatment under the UKVFTA, the Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Circular No. 02/2021/TT-BCT that will regulate the origin issues and take effect on 27 June 2021.
On 12 June 2021, the Singapore Food Authority published a media release in relation to a recall of several Eat Real Puff products, following a similar recall of the same products by the United Kingdom Food Standards Authority. Separately, on 25 June 2021, the Consumer Product Safety Office published a media release in relation to a voluntary recall of the Cotton On Kids Projector Light by the Cotton On Group.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority recently released its Consultation Conclusions Paper on Implementation of Mandatory Reference Checking Scheme to Address the “Rolling Bad Apples” Phenomenon. Baker McKenzie lawyers discuss the key aspects of the Consultation Conclusions and the employment ramifications.
There has been a rise in cases in which The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited suspends trading in issuers’ shares because they have failed to comply with Rule 13.24 of the Main Board Listing Rules. Rule 13.24 requires an issuer to maintain a sufficient level of operations and assets of sufficient value to support its operations to warrant the continued listing of the issuer’s securities. The Court of Appeal in China Trends Holdings Limited v The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited [2021] HKCA 980 again upheld the Stock Exchange’s decision to suspend trading in an issuer’s shares pursuant to the equivalent of Rule 13.24 under the GEM Listing Rules. The Court of Appeal highlighted the court’s reluctance to interfere with the market regulators’ application of Rule 13.24 and clarified the application of this rule.
In recent years, the Vietnamese government has attempted to follow global best practices in regulating data. One critical aspect of these new legislative attempts has to do with Vietnam’s data localization requirements. This article articulates the basic principles concerning these still-developing localization requirements.
In December 2019, Myanmar’s first Anti-dumping Law (“ADL“) was passed by the Assembly of the Union of Myanmar (Pyidaungsu Hluttaw), marking the introduction of a legal framework for the imposition of anti-dumping measures in Myanmar for the first time. Although Myanmar has been a member of the World Trade Organization (“WTO“) since 1995, Myanmar did not have a national anti-dumping law until the passing of the ADL. The new legislation is expected to enter into force on 1 July 2021.
In the recent flurry of US Government activity related to Xinjiang, one thing is clear: trade compliance risks continue to increase for companies with supply chains that involve Xinjiang. These latest actions add to the expanding list of companies that face import bans, export bans, and sometimes both, in addition to broader measures under consideration in Congress. This blog post summarizes the past month’s developments.
The Australian Treasury has released an exposure draft of legislation, which, if implemented, would require operators of electronic platforms to report to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) identification and payment information regarding the sellers that participate on their platforms (“Sellers”).