Croatia joins euro area, Sweden assumes EU Council presidency on Jan 1

The European Central Bank (ECB) and Croatia’s central bank Hrvatska narodna banka have agreed to monitor developments in the Croatian kuna against the euro on the foreign exchange market until January 1, 2023.

With the entry into force of the close cooperation framework between the ECB and Hrvatska narodna banka on October 1, 2020, the ECB became responsible for directly supervising eight significant institutions and overseeing 15 less significant institutions in Croatia.

As Sweden takes over the rotating presidency of the EU Council, it will also work on the 18-month programme jointly drafted with its predecessors France and the Czech Republic. Early finalisation of the India-EU free trade agreement will be among its priorities and it will act as an ‘honest broker’, Swedish foreign trade minister Johan Forssell had said earlier.

While the second phase will be implemented from January 1, 2023, the first phase of the pocket bag fabric rule applicable to woven apparel goods made of blue denim fabric under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) became effective on January 1 this year.

The first phase provides that for apparel goods of Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Code (HTSUS) Chapters 61 and 62 that contain a pocket or pockets, the pocket bag fabric must be formed and finished in the territory of one or more USMCA countries from yarn wholly formed in one or more USMCA countries.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)