Baker McKenzie’s Sanctions Blog published the alert titled US Government Publishes Compliance Note on Voluntary Self-Disclosures of Sanctions and Export Control Violations on 11 August 2023. Read the article via the link here. Please also visit our Sanctions Blog for the most recent updates.
The Brazilian Secretariat of Foreign Trade published on 31 July 2023 an official notice of initiation of a new investigation against Brazilian imports of gloves used for non-surgical procedures from Malaysia, Thailand and China (Circular No. 27, dated 28 July 2023). The investigated product is mainly used for non-surgical medical, dental or veterinary procedures and is commonly classified in the sub-items of the Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM) 4015.12.00 and 3926.20.00.
On 9 August 2023, President Biden issued Executive Order 14105, targeting certain US investments into Chinese companies or Chinese-owned companies engaged in three advanced technology areas. The Executive Order directs the US Department of the Treasury to issue regulations that will (1) prohibit certain categories of US outbound investments and (2) require notification of other investments involving the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Macau
The Spanish State Gazette published yesterday contains the Royal Decree 571/2023, of 4 July, on Foreign Investments which is intended to (i) update the procedure for declaring foreign investments for statistical and information purposes (both foreign investments in Spain and Spanish investments abroad); and (ii) develop certain features of Law 19/2003, of 4 July, on the legal regime of capital movements and foreign economic transactions and its implementing regulations, particularly with regard to the introduction of Article 7bis, relating to the suspension of the liberalization regime, in order to provide greater legal certainty to the authorization procedure, for the cases in which this is meant to be mandatory.
Vietnam currently maintain a drop ship model under which a foreign buyer may purchase goods in Vietnam, and instruct the seller to deliver the goods to another Vietnamese entity, which is called “On The Spot” Export/Import (OTS).
Under this OTS scheme, the seller is still qualified as exporting their goods out of Vietnam to enjoy certain tax and duty incentives (i.e., import duty exemption of imported materials, 0% VAT).Under this new proposal, OTS scheme is to be abolished, and current transactions would be categorized under other existing rules.
Following the re-tabling of the Malaysian Budget 2023 on 24 February 2023, the Malaysian Inland Revenue Board and Royal Malaysian Customs Department have reintroduced the Special Voluntary Disclosure Programme 2.0 and the Voluntary Disclosure Programme which apply to direct taxes and indirect taxes respectively. A similar programme was previously implemented in 2022 for indirect taxes and in 2019 for direct taxes, although there are some key differences in respect of the scope and incentives.
The Ministry of Planning and Finance issued the Customs Rules relating to Protection of Trade Mark Rights (Notification No. 50/2023) (“Customs Rules”), which took effect from 14 July 2023.
The Customs Rules set out the requirements and procedure with respect to the recordal of trade mark rights with the Myanmar Customs, as well as the suspension order against the release of counterfeit goods depicting unauthorized marks into free circulation.
On 25 July 2023 the UK government announced that increased extended producer responsibility (EPR) fees for packaging waste will be deferred by a year from October 2024 to 2025. In the same week the government also launched a consultation on the draft legislation to implement the new EPR regime which will include the introduction of mandatory packaging recyclability markings for the UK market.
On 1 August 2023, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced an indefinite extension to the use of CE marking in Great Britain beyond the previous 31 December 2024 deadline, giving businesses flexibility to choose between the CE marking and the UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking for the Great Britain market for the foreseeable future.
The announcement covers the regulations falling within DBT’s remit including the regimes applicable to toys, EMC, radio equipment, PPE, machinery and LVD. It confirms that other government departments will communicate their plans in respect of other CE/UKCA marking regimes (such as Ecodesign and Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS)) in due course.
On 28 July 2023, Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries was published in the Official Journal. The new Regulation repeals and replaces the existing Batteries Directive (2006/66/EC) and seeks to make all batteries placed on the EU market more durable, safe, sustainable, and efficient. It takes the extended producer responsibility (EPR) regime created by the existing Directive and expands it significantly through the introduction of more detailed mandatory design, content and conformity assessment requirements aimed at ensuring the sustainability and circularity of batteries. It also introduces new mandatory supply chain due diligence requirements from August 2025 to address the social and environmental risks inherent in the extraction, processing and trading of certain raw materials and secondary raw materials used in battery manufacturing.