free trade agreement
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1° of May 2024 free trade agreement EU and New Zealand will enter into force
After some negotiations round, 1° of May 2024 free trade agreement EU and New Zealand will enter into force. Mr. Todd McClay (Trade and Agriculture Minister of New Zealand) said: “..I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union of our ratification of the New Zealand European Union Free Trade Agreement (NZ-EUFTA). This enables the agreement to come into force earlier than expected, from 1 May 2024,” . The European Council in its “Notice concerning the date of entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and New Zealand” on 25.03.2024 declared that “…The Free…
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EU, critical raw materials and due diligence
Why you should read about critical raw materials? These substances affect many and different indutries: renewable energies, electric vehicles, smartphones, ICT, fertilizers and other ones… On 18 March 2024 European Council adopted the proposal of the European critical raw material act which covers rare earths and materials with a high risk of risk disruption. It is in line, among others, with the European Green Deal strategy, the European Climate Law, Batteries Regulation and the 2022 Versailles Declaration. Essentially, the three pillars of this act are: a) diversify the critical raw materials supply in the perspective of the Europian autonomy b) promoting the circularity; c) develop reserch and innovation. At…
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Published the European decision for the approval of the FTA with New Zealand. After the ratification of New Zealand, does a sustainable trade will take over?
The decision of the European Council 2024/244 of 27 November 2023 on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and New Zealand, lays down that “…Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and New Zealand (‘the Agreement’) is hereby approved on behalf of the Union…”. This decision has been published on 28 February 2024. From the other side, it is interesing to undeline that New Zealand needs to pass implementing legislation in order to ratify the agreement. In the official web site of the New Zealand Government it is declared: “…A significant milestone in ratifying the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA)…
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1 gennaio 2024 abolizione dazi in Svizzera per prodotti industriali
Si ricorda che dal 1 gennaio 2024 sono annullati tutti i dazi sui prodotti industriali importati in Svizzera. La TARES (Tariffa d’uso svizzera) è stata aggiornata come anche la legge sulla tariffa delle dogane (LTD) n. 632.10 del 9 ottobre 1986 (Stato 1° gennaio 2022) il Allegato I (Tariffa generale: Tariffa doganale svizzera) alla nota n.35 si indica che “…Aggiornato dal…art. 1 dell’O del 15 feb. 2023, in vigore dal 1° gen. 2024 (RU 2023 86)…”. Ad ulteriore chiarimento si riporta il testo del seguente messaggio: “…Dipartimento federale delle finanze DFF- Ufficio federale della dogana e della sicurezza dei confini UDSC- Abolizione dei dazi doganali sui rodotti industriali dall’1.1.2024…” secondo…
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EU GSP scheme and sustainable development
The European Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) is a framework of customs rules for which, the duties on some goods are removed if imported from vulnerable developping countries. This benefit requires that: To be eligible, the goods must comply with some additional rules: direct trasport, accounting segregation, rules of origin, statement of origin with the mention of rex (registered exporter) in the invoice or other document; It is based on the regulation 978/2012. It is interesting to add that in November 2023 the application of this GSP regulation was extended until December 2027, pending the approval of a reviewed GSP regulation by the European Parliament and the Council of the…
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2024 a New Year of customs challenges
The 2023 has been an year very rich in customs news which will impat on the custom operations and compliance. We would list the following topics already published in our website: CBAM carbon border adjustments mechanism for which it is required to: 1) take into account HS codes;2) supply chain management; 3) special regimes; 4) made in/non-preferential origin; 5) customs value; The European regulantion on f-gases import; The due diligence on some goods (cattle,cocoa,palm oil, rubber, soya, wood,coffee) with specific focus on “deforestation and forest degradation”; The ecodesign, recycle and second life for batteries manufactured and imported into the EU; The free trade agreement with the New Zealand; The free…
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EAC, Kenya and EU: Economic Partnership Agreement with a specific focus on sustainable development
On 8 December 2023, Eu Commission published the draft of the “Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union, of the one part, and the Republic of Kenya, Member of the East African Community, of the other part” by means of the interinstitutional Files 2023/0337 (NLE) and 2023/0338 (NLE). This agreement will cover the following topics: (a) general provisions; (b) trade in goods; (c) fisheries; (d) agriculture; (e) economic and development cooperation; (f) institutional provisions; (g) dispute avoidance and settlement; (h) general exceptions; (i) general and final provisions; and (j) Annexes, Protocols and Joint Statements. Before going deeper with the short check of the available documents, it is useful to recall…
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PEM an update
One of the more important FTA of the EU is, of course, the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean (PEM) Convention on preferential rules of origin. This agreement established: a) a common framework of rules of origin; b) cumulation. It involves from a side the EU and from the other one the following PEM Contracting parties: the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtestein, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Israel, Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Türkiye, the Faroe Islands, the Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania. On 7 December 2023, the PEM Joint Committee adopted the new and modernised rules of origin that aims…
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European artificial intelligence act and customs implications
On 9 December 2023 the European Commission published a press release on the “political agreement on Artificial Intelligence Act”. According to this document: “…The new rules will be applied directly in the same way across all Member States, based on a future-proof definition of AI….” By following a risk-based approach for which there are two main categories of risks: Minimal risk: “…The vast majority of AI systems fall into the category of minimal risk. Minimal risk applications such as AI-enabled recommender systems or spam filters will benefit from a free-pass and absence of obligations, as these systems present only minimal or no risk for citizens’ rights or safety. On a…
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EU,UK,TCA electric accumulators and electrified vehicles
The proposal (COM/2023/950 final) for a Council decision “…on the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union in the Partnership Council established by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part as regards the transitional product-specific rules for electric accumulators and electrified vehicles…” has been published. In particular, the decision aims to adopt of a decision to amend the transitional product-specific rules for electric accumulators and electrified vehicles in Annex 5 of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) to: extend the…