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The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement went into force on 1 July 2020, replacing the North America Free Trade Agreement to support mutually beneficial trade between the parties. In this video, Baker McKenzie lawyers from each country share their reflections and the insights they’ve gained during the almost three years since the USMCA took effect.

On 31 March 2023, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry initiated a public comment procedure for the Draft Amendment to Ministerial Ordinance and the Draft Amendment to Circular that is intended to impose new export control requirements on certain sensitive semiconductor manufacturing equipment from Japan. The public comment period is from 31 March 2023 to 29 April 2023. Anyone can submit a comment through either (i) the Japanese government’s website, (ii) email, or (iii) mail.

Post-importation transfer pricing adjustments have always presented great challenge for multinational companies doing business in China due to the lack of formal nationwide mechanism which simultaneously addresses the tax, customs and foreign exchange administration requirements, in order to allow customs valuation adjustment to be made in response to a post-importation TP adjustment.
While a TP and customs aligned approach which was introduced in a pilot program in Shenzhen in 2022 allows retroactive TP adjustment to be made with respect to imported goods, the application of the pilot program is currently limited to companies registered in Shenzhen which have in place advanced pricing arrangements with the China tax authority.

On 31 March 2023, the UK announced that it will join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), joining 11 jurisdictions (including Mexico, Japan, Canada and Australia) across the Asia-Pacific region and becoming the first European country to do so. While the UK already has existing bi-lateral trade agreements with 9 of the 11 CPTPP jurisdictions, the biggest benefits will arise as other jurisdictions join the bloc (with applications to join by jurisdictions including China, Taiwan and Ecuador already submitted).

Welcome to this edition of the Trade Finance Insight. In this edition, we lead with an in-depth interview with Dr George Elombi, Executive Vice President and Member of the Board at African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The interview will discuss the challenges of implementing the AfCFTA, the successes it has experienced so far, the anticipated opportunities it will bring to the region in mid to long term and the role Afreximbank is playing to contribute to its success.

Heightened sanctions and export controls targeting key technologies and the TMT sector are an important trend of recent years and reflect the current geopolitical climate. In this episode Anne Petterd, Frank Pan, and Alison Stafford Powell discuss the practical impact these sanctions have on TMT companies and what TMT companies should do in their strategic plans to de-risk their exposure.

Post-importation transfer pricing adjustments have always presented great challenge for multinational companies doing business in China due to the lack of formal nationwide mechanism which simultaneously addresses the tax, customs and foreign exchange administration requirements, in order to allow customs valuation adjustment to be made in response to a post-importation TP adjustment. A new practice adopted by China Customs piles on additional challenges for companies looking to implement TP adjustments.