Customs

• The "Italy: Oral Tobacco, Nicotine Pouch and Heated Tobacco Regulation" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
• The Tobacco Products Directive (TPD)-implementing decree, Legislative Decree 6/2016, defines heated tobacco products as novel smokeless tobacco products, which are subject to more lenient regulation than cigarettes in terms of public place usage and taxation.
• This report provides a detailed overview of Italy's regulatory framework for heated tobacco and herbal heated products, covering all policy areas from product and packaging requirements to taxation and sanctions
  A ban on all oral tobacco products except chewing tobacco is established in the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD)-implementing decree, Legislative Decree 6/2016.
• Nicotine pouches do not fall under the TPD-implementing decree, and so are not considered either tobacco or tobacco-related products.

• Britvic plc (the “Company") was notified on 21 August 2023 that the following transactions have taken place in relation to the Britvic Share Incentive Plan (“SIP”).
• The SIP is an all-employee trust arrangement approved by HM Revenue and Customs, under which employees are able to buy ordinary shares in the Company of 20 pence each (“Shares”), using deductions from salary in each monthly pay period, and receive allocations of matching free Shares (“Matching Shares”).
• The following Directors purchased the number of Shares set out against their names below, at a price of 840.84 pence per Share, and were allocated for no consideration the number of Matching Shares (purchased by the SIP trustees at a price of 840.84 pence per Matching Share) set out against their names below:

• President Joe Biden has been negotiating a new deal with Mexico in the hope of mediating the long-running immigration crisis on the US southern border.
• According to Customs and Border Protection, border crossings from Mexico to the United States have recently fallen from 10,000 a day to approximately 3,500 a day.

Mexico’s role

• Alex Miller, director of the advocacy group Immigration Justice Campaign, called the changes “a stark reversal of the administration’s stated commitment to restoring access to asylum”.
• Former Democrat Representative for Texas 16th congressional district Beto O’Rourke tweeted that the ruling was “the right decision”.
• Both immigration advocates and those calling for stricter guidelines have attacked the Biden administration’s immigration policy since the president took office.
• Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tasked with finding a solution to the border crisis, has been the subject of much Republican criticism.
• Whether the supreme court upholds the San Francisco ruling or not, the White House seems to be in a no-win position.

Immigration attitudes

• Recent polls show that significantly more Americans that identified as Republicans (70%) felt that immigration was a major problem than Democrats (25%).
• Inflation (65%), affordable healthcare (64%) and partisanship (61%) are thought by all parties as the top national problems and outweigh illegal immigration (47%).
• The border crisis is unlikely to cost Biden the election, but it will remain a thorn in the administration’s side beyond 2024.

• myUKmailbox , a leading package forwarding service, reports at least a 30% increase in export times and red tape.
• The World Customs Organisation changed the codes earlier this year, and the impact on UK businesses is significant.
• "The changes in commodity codes have led to longer export times and more bureaucracy.
• "The government site for finding commodity codes is a bit of a minefield, and ensuring you've got the right code takes time.