President Barack Obama authorized on Sept. 5 a one-year extension for sanctions authorities associated with Cuba. The regulations are implemented through the Cuban Assets Control Regulations and fall under the Trade With the Enemy Act, the White House said. The extension expires on Sept. 14, 2015.

President Barack Obama will nominate Russell Deyo, previously an executive at Johnson & Johnson, as undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security, Sarah Saldaña, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, as assistant secretary for ICE and Danny Marti as the White House’s intellectual property enforcement coordinator. Marti currently serves as managing partner at Kilpatrick Townsend. “Danny’s impressive record of commitment to enforcing IP rights in the Internet age makes him a particularly strong choice,” said Motion Picture Association of America CEO Chris Dodd in a Aug. 28 statement (here).

The Treasury and State Departments on Aug. 29 released an extensive list of sanctions on individuals and entities in Iran. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed individuals, entities and vessels on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement the Iran sanctions are consistent with the relief package brokered between P5+1 countries and Iran in January (see 14072525). “Our actions today and since the start of the talks are consistent with our commitments under the Joint Plan of Action, which provided limited relief of certain sanctions in exchange for Iranian steps that halted its nuclear program and rolled it back in key respects,” said Hayden.

Small business owners and others in the trade community that rely on state financing in order to export goods should press lawmakers to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank while Congress is back in home districts for August, said President Barack Obama in an Aug. 23 weekly address that focused on the credit agency. “Small business owners have had to overcome a lot these past several years. We all saw local businesses close their doors during the crisis,” said Obama. “And in the past few years, we’ve seen more and more open their doors and do their part to help lead America’s comeback. At the very least, they deserve a Congress that doesn’t stand in the way of their success.” House and Senate lawmakers are at loggerheads over reauthorization legislation, with many Republicans arguing the credit agency actually hampers U.S. economic growth (see 14073111). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is seeking reauthorization as one of the chamber’s main priorities in September (see 14080509). The bank’s charter expires on Sept. 30.

The summit planned for September between President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents an important opportunity for both countries to bridge differences on trade rules and policy, said President of The National Bureau of Asian Research Richard Ellings in a recent paper. The two sides have been pitted against each other in conflicts over localization barriers and alleged Indian intellectual property (IP) right violations. “The IP challenge from India, while not as significant in scope or scale as that from China, has its own worrisome components,” said Ellings. “The unpredictable use of compulsory licenses is particularly nettlesome for affected U.S. sectors, especially pharmaceuticals, where two-thirds of patented drugs are on a list of potential compulsory licenses.” Many U.S. industry and administration officials have lambasted India for failing to stop a pervasive pharmaceutical counterfeit industry in the country, but the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) did not place India on the “priority watch list” during a recent review (see 14050101).

President Barack Obama on Aug. 7 extended the Commerce Department’s authority to control U.S. exports under the Export Administration Regulations through Aug. 17, 2015. The move extends a national emergency associated with the expiration of the Export Administration Act, which initially lapsed in 1994 and has since been renewed annually through executive action. Former President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13222 to declare the national emergency, and the Aug. 7 executive action affirms that the emergency still exists.

President Barack Obama announced $7 billion in new financing resources on Aug. 5 to promote U.S. exports and investment on the African continent through aviation, construction and other projects, as part of an administration-wide effort to bolster trade under the umbrella Doing Business in Africa campaign (here). The $7 billion figure includes $3 billion in Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank lending over a two year period, along with a host of other financing initiatives from different agencies. The announcement came as the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit convened for the second day (see 14080501).

President Barack Obama unveiled an administration-wide strategy to optimize U.S. trade with sub-Saharan Africa in a move that coincides with the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit launch in Washington, D.C. Obama established a Steering Committee, comprised of nearly all trade and development arms of the administration, on Aug. 4 that will report to the president within 180 days on recommendations to expand bilateral trade and investment. The committee is directed to target initiatives and programs that will bolster the African Trade and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the “cornerstone” of U.S.-Africa trade, Obama said in a memorandum (here).

President Barack Obama is fully supportive of the Export Control Reform effort to usher in a “new, synchronized” control framework that strikes a balance between trade facilitation, assistance to allies and preservation of U.S. national interest, said White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough at the Commerce Department’s Update conference on July 29 in Washington, D.C. The Obama administration endorses the creation of a single export control licensing agency, enforcement authority, commodity list and information technology portal, an objective outlined by Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security officials repeatedly in the past, McDonough said.

The Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2014, HR-5021 (here), is an adequate short-term measure to keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent for the coming months, said the White House on July 14 in a statement supporting the bill. The White House, however, said Congress must approve a long-term measure far in advance of the May 31, 2015 extension expiration in the House measure. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., introduced the bill in recent days with help from Senate counterparts. The Senate Finance Committee also on July 10 approved a similar measure (see 14071110).