MAINLAND CHINA

The Immigration and entry / exit procedures, as well as a number of new visa arrangements, trialled in the country’s Pilot Free Trade Zones have now been implemented on a national basis. More

At the direction of President Trump, the U.S. Treasury Department on 5 August designated mainland China as a currency manipulator just over two months after determining in a report to Congress that Beijing met only one of three criteria under the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 for determining whether a country is pursuing foreign exchange policies that could give it an unfair competitive advantage against the United States. More

China’s 1.3 billion population constitutes a huge market for garments. Market value is expected to reach RMB1,726 billion by 2020. Chinese garment brands can be divided into two major categories. The first comprises upmarket brands, targeted at consumers from high-income groups. The second adopts a mass market strategy, which offers affordable and trendy garments especially favoured by young consumers. In terms of sales channels, online garment market will continue to expand. More

USTR has announced the first batch of products that will be excluded from the additional 25 percent duty imposed under Section 301 on some US$200 billion worth of imports from mainland China (List 3 goods). These exclusions will be retroactive to 24 September 2018 and remain in place for a period of one year from the date of publication of an official notice in the Federal Register. More