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Monday 14 September

5 updates
Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerEU / Lille

EU Customs Reform: Single Data Hub and EU Customs Authority

European Commission Commissioner Šefčovič addressed the European Parliament plenary debate on the Union Customs Code and Customs Authority, presenting the Customs Reform. The reform centralizes customs data, establishes a new EU Customs Authority based in Lille, and introduces the EU Customs Data Hub as a single entry point for traders across the Union, where data need only be submitted once. The reform is expected to save EU businesses up to 1 billion euros per year. E-commerce operators can access the Hub from 1 July 2028, with other operators able to start using it by 2031. The reform also restores fairness in e-commerce: platforms and sellers, not consumers, are considered the importer…

Policy & visas
Pinchain TourismChina

New 3C Certification Rules for Power Banks Take Effect from April 2027

China's State Administration for Market Regulation issued new 3C certification implementation rules for power banks in May this year, and certification bodies have issued the first 32 CCC certificates. Power banks certified under the old rules may be produced and sold until 31 March 2027; from 1 April 2027, all power banks sold ex-factory must be certified under the new rules. The new rules add the mandatory national standard Safety Technical Specifications for Portable Power Supplies as a certification basis, strengthen tests for compression, nail penetration and lithium plating, and require smart management, voltage regulation and abnormal-use disable functions.

Policy & visas
Pinchain TourismChina / Yunnan / Sichuan / Guangxi / Jiangxi / Henan / Chongqing / Heilongjiang

China's Culture and Tourism Ministry Releases Sixth Batch of Forced-Consumption Cases

Since March 2026, local culture and tourism authorities have continued a campaign against tour-guide misconduct and forced consumption. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism released its sixth batch of typical cases, covering travel agencies arranging shopping or paid extras without agreement, organising unreasonably low-priced tours, guides instructing or coercing shopping, and threatening tourists. Penalties include confiscation of illegal gains, fines, suspension of business, revocation of travel agency licences and temporary suspension of guide certificates, with fines ranging from 3,000 to 100,000 yuan.

Policy & visas
China Tourism NewsChina

China's 15th Five-Year Tourism Plan Strengthens Standards and Governance

China's 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Tourism Power explicitly calls for strengthening standards leadership, focusing on key links, priority areas and emerging business forms in tourism, accelerating national standard development and revision, strengthening implementation evaluation, promoting domestic and international standardization coordination, and actively participating in international tourism standard setting. The article proposes improving the standards system architecture with mandatory national standards, recommended national and industry standards, local standards, group standards and enterprise standards; optimizing standards supply for smart tourism, study tourism and tou…

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerEU / Romania

EU Commission approves €52 million Romanian State aid scheme

The European Commission has approved a €52 million (RON 277 million) Romanian State aid scheme to support cattle farmers affected by increased fuel and fertiliser prices stemming from the Middle East crisis. Approved under the Middle East Crisis Temporary State Aid Framework (METSAF) adopted on 29 April 2026, the scheme will run until 31 December 2026 and provide direct grants of up to €50,000 per company. The Commission found the scheme necessary, appropriate and proportionate under EU State aid rules.

Sunday 13 September

1 updates
Policy & visas
China Tourism NewsInner Mongolia / Beijing / Shandong / Yanqing / Xinjiang

National Great Wall Protection Work Conference Held in Yanqing, Beijing

On September 12, the National Great Wall Protection Work Conference was held in Yanqing, Beijing. Rao Quan, Vice Minister of Culture and Tourism and Director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, attended and spoke; Beijing Vice Mayor Sima Hong delivered remarks; Qiao Yunfei, Deputy Director of the National Cultural Heritage Administration, chaired the meeting. The conference reviewed progress since the 18th CPC National Congress, analyzed problems and challenges, and required localities to follow the Great Wall Protection Master Plan: refine protection status, implement tiered protection, strengthen the "four haves" work, enhance systematic protection, deepen interpretation and…

Friday 11 September

16 updates
Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerUkraine / Greece / Moldova / Europe

EU Commissioner Visits Moldova as Humanitarian Aid Shifts to Long-Term Inclusion

EU Commissioner Lahbib made her first visit to Moldova, noting the country has taken in more than two million people since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and still hosts around 140,000 Ukrainian refugees. The EU has provided over €93 million in humanitarian aid since 2022, but with the Refugee Response Plan ending this year, support is shifting from emergency relief to long-term inclusion in national systems. Moldova also deployed around 50 firefighters to Greece and hosted Ukraine's aerial firefighting capacities.

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerUkraine / Russia / EU

European Commission Approves €6.1 Billion for Ukraine Air and Missile Defence

The European Commission has approved an additional €6.1 billion for Ukraine to procure defence products in air and missile defence, ammunition, drones and electronic warfare. Funded under the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan, the package includes five derogations from standard eligibility conditions, enabling Ukraine to purchase PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems, including via the NATO-coordinated PURL mechanism. The funding aims to strengthen Ukraine's capacity to withstand continued Russian ballistic missile and drone strikes while reinforcing Europe's own defence.

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerEU / Sweden

European Commission to Present Circular Economy Act

European Commissioner Roswall announced at an event in Avesta, Sweden, that the Circular Economy Act will be presented later this year. The Act aims to simplify the regulatory framework and remove single market barriers, particularly differing definitions of waste. Currently, approval to transport electronic waste between Member States can take 90 to 180 days. The Act will also strengthen secondary raw material markets and reduce dependency on critical raw material imports.

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerUkraine / Brussels / EU

EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance Holds First Board Meeting

The EU-Ukraine Drone Alliance held its first board meeting in Brussels with 18 founding members, including nine EU companies and nine Ukrainian companies. The Alliance aims to accelerate development and production of next-generation drone and counter-drone systems. Ukraine produced over 4 million drones in 2025 and expects 10 million in 2026. Commissioner Kubilius stressed the need for design cycles measured in weeks and rapid scaling capacity.

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerEU / Ireland

European Commission Strengthens Online Safety for Children

Executive Vice-President Virkkunen stated at a Dublin conference that the EU is strengthening online protection for children through the Digital Services Act (DSA) and AI Act. 97% of minors in the EU go online daily, and teenagers aged 13-18 spend an average of 4.5 hours on screens per day. The Commission has opened investigations into platforms including X, Shein and Snapchat, and issued 10 preliminary findings.

Policy & visas
Business Travel NewsUnited States

TSA Returns Gateside Access for Non-Travelers

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration has brought back gateside access for select non-traveling individuals under a program called Gateside by TSA PreCheck. Thirteen airports currently participate, with more in the pipeline. TSA PreCheck members and members of other programs with Known Traveler Numbers, such as Global Entry, are eligible for the free passes, which are applied for through a login.gov account at least one day and no more than three days before the needed pass. If approved, the individual must bring an acceptable form of ID to the TSA PreCheck lane. Participating airports include Mesa, Ariz.; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas Fort Worth; Detroit; Wichita; Indianapolis; Las Vega…

Policy & visas
Pinchain TourismChina

China's New Exit-Entry Regulation Takes Effect Sept 15; Officials Clarify It Does Not Tighten Ordin…

The State Council's Regulation on Exit-Entry Administration will take effect on September 15, 2026, comprising 19 articles. Responding to online claims that outbound travel would be comprehensively tightened and harder for ordinary people, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Public Security and National Immigration Administration clarified in a Q&A that such claims are misreadings. The regulation targets people deceived into going abroad, those using false grounds to illegally exit for cross-border gambling and telecom fraud, and those illegally transferring technology overseas. Citizens applying to travel, visit relatives, do business or study abroad with legitimate grounds and meeting le…

Policy & visas
China Tourism NewsBeijing

Beijing Plan Promotes Digital-Intelligent Integration of Culture, Commerce, Tourism, Sports and Exh…

The Beijing municipal government recently issued the Digital Economy Development Plan for Beijing's 15th Five-Year Plan period, explicitly promoting digital-intelligent integration of culture, commerce, tourism, sports and exhibitions; digital collection and labeling of cultural resources; resource libraries including smart libraries, digital museums, digital art galleries and digital intangible-heritage archives; new formats such as 'beyond-venue' performances, immersive exhibitions and virtual-real integrated guided tours and shopping; and AI application in major sports events and training. A special column deploys the digital audiovisual 'beyond-venue' promotion project, proposing to upg…

Policy & visas
China Tourism NewsChina / Beijing

China's National Tourism Standardization Committee Opens Call for International Tourism Standard Pr…

On 11 September, China's National Tourism Standardization Technical Committee issued a notice calling for international tourism standard proposals, to implement the National Standardization Development Outline and leverage its role as the domestic technical counterpart to ISO/TC228. Submissions must include an application form, drafting notes, and Chinese-English draft standards, due by 11 October 2026. Priority areas include diving services, sustainable tourism, accommodation services, gastronomy tourism, business travel, smart tourism, and new tourism formats.

Policy & visas
China Tourism NewsBeijing / Chaoyang District

Beijing Chaoyang Promotes Support Policies for Culture-Commerce-Tourism-Sports-Exhibition Integrati…

On 11 September, at the 2026 CIFTIS Chaoyang District cultural tourism industry policy press conference, the Chaoyang District Culture and Tourism Bureau presented 2026 support policies for culture-commerce-tourism-sports-exhibition integration. In 2025, Chaoyang's 'eight policies' support funds were deployed, with 35 projects receiving 21 million yuan. The 2026 measures cover all formats: performing arts support for large concerts, music festivals and premium performances; special support for quality exhibitions selling 30,000 or more tickets annually; rewards for non-professional leagues based on audience and participant scale; funding for World's Top 100 exhibitions or UFI-certified proj…

Policy & visas
China Tourism NewsChina / Yunnan / Sichuan / Guangxi / Jiangxi / Henan / Chongqing / Heilongjiang

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism Releases Sixth Batch of Forced-Consumption Cases

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism published its sixth batch of typical cases on forced consumption in the tourism market, covering 13 cases. Since March 2026, local culture and tourism authorities and cultural market enforcement agencies have continued a campaign against guide misconduct and forced consumption. Cases include arranging shopping or paid add-ons without tourist consent, unreasonably low-priced tours, and guides threatening or deceiving tourists into buying goods. Penalties included confiscation of illegal gains, suspension of operations, fines, and revocation of travel agency business licences.

Policy & visas
Pinchain TourismBeijing

Beijing Revises Museum Regulation Draft, Removing Guide Access Restrictions

The Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau responded to a petition on the guide-service clauses of the draft Beijing Museum Regulation, confirming that all 52 related opinions received during the public consultation from June 16 to July 19, 2026 were adopted. Restrictive wording in Articles 34 and 46, including the requirement that group or commercial tours may not be conducted without museum consent, was deleted to remove market-access barriers and ensure fair participation by market entities in museum interpretation services. The revised draft has been submitted to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee for review.

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerEU / Ireland

EU Commission to Propose Digital Fairness Act

EU Commissioner for Consumer Protection McGrath said at a Dublin conference on online safety for children and young people that the Commission will present a Digital Fairness Act (DFA) by the end of this year to close gaps in consumer protection rules for the digital age. The DFA could address dark patterns, misleading influencer marketing, unfair personalisation and personalised pricing, subscription-management difficulties, and drip pricing paired with dynamic pricing, and may consider switching off attention-maximising features by default and prohibiting loot boxes for minors. The Commission has already issued preliminary DSA findings against Meta and TikTok.

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerUkraine / Russia / EU

European Commission Approves €6.1 Billion for Ukraine's Air Defence and Defence Procurement

The European Commission approved an additional €6.1 billion for Ukraine to procure defence products in air and missile defence, ammunition, drones and electronic warfare, funded under the €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan. The decision also enables Ukraine to procure PAC-3 missiles for Patriot systems, including via the NATO-coordinated PURL mechanism, and includes five derogations from standard eligibility conditions. With this approval, the €28.3 billion allocated for Ukraine's 2026 defence support has been fully committed.

Policy & visas
European Commission Press CornerIndia / EU

European Commission Presents EU-India Free Trade Deal to Council for Signature

The European Commission submitted proposals to the Council for the signature and conclusion of the EU-India Free Trade Agreement, seeking authorisation. If authorised, it would be the largest trade agreement ever concluded by both the EU and India. The deal would eliminate or reduce tariffs on 96% of EU goods exports to India, saving around €4 billion per year in duties, and improve market access and investment rules. The EU and India already trade over €180 billion in goods and services annually, supporting close to 800,000 EU jobs.

Policy & visas
Brazil ANAC NewsBrazil

Brazil's ANAC Opens Second Call for Santos Dumont Platform User Survey

Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) opened a second call for an online survey aimed at improving regulated entities' experience with the Santos Dumont portal. Ongoing system adjustments include new navigation, a responsive interface, a guided tour, AI-assisted search for services and legislation, and personalised content based on the user or represented entity. The survey targets pilots, flight attendants, air operators, maintenance personnel, aerodrome operators and drone operators, among others, with registration from 7 to 20 September and interviews from 28 September to 9 October.

Thursday 10 September

3 updates