On 28 March 2023, the Minister of Finance introduced Budget 2023, aptly titled a “Made-in-Canada Plan.” A key trade-related theme resonates throughout the Budget: futureproofing the Canadian economy to respond to realignment of global trade patterns. Budget 2023 highlights new policy based initiatives and legislative amendments to address, such as: the global race to net-zero economies and “industries of tomorrow”; “friendshoring” economies to limit dependence on authoritarian regimes for critical goods; domestic supply chain weaknesses; forced labor in Canadian supply chains; and circumvention of economic sanctions.
The Anti-Sexual Harassment Act 2022 passed by the Dewan Negara on 11 August 2022. On 28 March 2023, several provisions of the Act came into effect, and it is anticipated that the rest of the Act will come into effect in stages. This is a positive development to be lauded, considering that it is the first to many steps in having an anti-sexual harassment legislation in Malaysia, to increase the prevention and awareness of sexual harassment (in addition to the sexual harassment provisions in the Employment Act).
On 16 March 2023, the General Confederation of Labor representing the workers, and the Argentine Industrial Union representing the employers, in the presence of the Federal Ministers of Labor and of Women, Gender and Diversity, signed an agreement to extend certain obligations and modify certain aspects of Decree 144/22.
On 24 March 2023, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier issued a press release requesting certain alternative investment fund managers, management companies of undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities and institutions for occupational retirement provision to participate in the data collection exercise relating to pre-contractual product disclosure information under Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector as amended and Regulation (EU) 2020/852 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment as amended.
Under current Australian arrangements, the “Safeguard Mechanism” requires Australian facilities that produce over 100,000 tonnes of carbon annually (or an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases), known as “Safeguard Facilities”, to keep their net emissions below a baseline (or ceiling), which has been determined on a facility specific basis. To meet its international commitments to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, the Australian government has proposed changes to the operation of the Safeguard Mechanism with the effect of reducing carbon emissions over time. Those proposed changes have now been extended to secure the political support required to enable the passage of these legislative reforms through federal parliament.
The Argentine Central Bank issued Communication ‘A’ 7724, which updated the technology and information security risk standards to strengthen the cyber resilience of financial institutions. The Communication will become effective on 6 September 2023.
On 20 March 2023, the FCA published a Dear CEO letter to benchmark administrators setting out the findings of its preliminary review into ESG benchmarks. The review covered: (i) the quality of disclosures made by a sample of UK benchmark administrators; and (ii) the robustness and reliability of ESG benchmarks themselves. The FCA’s key finding was that the overall quality of ESG-related disclosures made by benchmark administrators is currently “poor”.
On 17 February 2023, and pursuant to its obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mexico’s Ministry of Economy published in the Federal Official Gazette the much-anticipated Administrative regulation that sets forth the goods which importation is subject to regulation by the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (Forced Labor Regulation), which prohibits the importation of goods produced with forced labor. Once Mexico’s Forced Labor Regulation becomes effective on 18 May 2023, all three members of the USMCA trade block, Mexico, Canada, and the United States, will have prohibitions and restrictions on the importation of goods made with forced labor.
The Carbon Pricing (Amendment) Act 2022 (“Act”), which came into force on 7 March 2023 and amends the Carbon Pricing Act 2018, seeks to advance Singapore’s transition towards net-zero.
The Act aims to encourage emitters of greenhouse gases to proactively reduce emissions by:
(a) progressively increasing carbon tax rates;
(b) introducing an industry transition framework to provide transitory allowances to companies in Emissions-Intensive Trade-Exposed sectors;
(c) setting up an International Carbon Credits framework; and
(d) revising the list of greenhouse gases and their Global Warming Potential Values.
On 22 March 2023, the European Commission tabled a proposal for a Directive on substantiation and communication of explicit environmental claims.
The proposal aims to harmonize the evaluation and monitoring of voluntary environmental claims – often referred to as “green claims” – towards EU consumers and control the proliferation of public and private environmental labels. Complementing the March 2022 proposal for a Directive on empowering consumers for the green transition as a lex specialis by providing more specific requirements on the substantiation, communication and verification of green claims, it contributes to the fight against “greenwashing”.