The Argentina Customs Director announced in a November press conference that Customs will continue focusing on customs valuations and transfer pricing issues. The asphyxiating foreign exchange regulations currently in place in Argentina are seen by Customs as an incentive for importers to artificially increase the import value of goods (since this will result in the transferring abroad of more foreign currency; a practice known as “over-invoicing”) as well as for exporters to artificially reduce the export value of goods (since this will result in some foreign exchange remaining abroad instead of being mandatorily converted into Pesos at an artificially low foreign exchange rate; known as “under-invoicing”).

Requests for preliminary rulings made by courts of EU Member States have always been dealt with by the European Court of Justice. Over the years the CJEU handled numerous customs cases on tariff classification, customs valuation, origin and procedural customs law. Due to capacity restraints at the CJEU, an alternative distribution of jurisdiction between the CJEU and the lower EU General Court is proposed by the CJEU. More specifically, the CJEU requests that the EU Commission propose a change to the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU, such that preliminary ruling requests for, amongst others, VAT and customs matters, are to be submitted to the General Court.

As a top producer of numerous critical mineral commodities, Africa is set to benefit from the rapid increase in the rate of global energy transition, with the continent’s mining industry playing a role in sourcing and supplying these critical minerals for use in clean energy initiatives. Exporting these critical minerals as raw materials, however, reduces Africa’s trading position to one of price takers, and the current disruptions in global supply chains are hampering the trade of these commodities in Africa, with mining companies subject to long delays and higher costs. The African Continental Free-Trade Area, implemented in 2021, acts as a strong impetus for African governments to address their infrastructure gaps, streamline their supply chains, boost their manufacturing capacity and overhaul regulation relating to trade, cross-border initiatives, investment-friendly policies and capital flows.

In 2019, the Indonesian Competition Commission (KPPU) issued a regulation that asserted that KPPU has the authority to review acquisitions of assets, not just acquisitions of shares. Since then, hundreds of acquisitions of asset transactions have been notified to KPPU. KPPU’s concepts of “assets” and their “acquisition” under this regulation are very broad.