President Barack Obama authorized on April 3 Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew to sanction people responsible for the destabilization of South Sudan. The order directs authorization for the blocking of property and interests.

President Barack Obama signed into law on April 3 H.R. 4152, a bill that provides aid and broadens the scope of sanctions against individuals that are contributing to the destabilization of Ukraine. “This aid package, coupled with sanctions against individuals responsible for violence and human rights violations, sends a clear message about our resolve and assistance for Ukraine,” said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez, D-N.J., in a statement (here).

President Barack Obama sent to the Senate the nomination of Elliot Kaye as commissioner and chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the White House said in a March 31 statement. Kaye currently serves as Consumer Product Safety Commission executive director, a position he has held since 2013. Obama announced his intent to nominate Kaye on March 27 (see 14032804).

President Barack Obama intends to nominate Elliot Kaye as commissioner and chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the White House said in a March 27 statement. Kaye currently serves as Consumer Product Safety Commission executive director, a position he has held since 2013.

Vice President Joe Biden may be able to play a useful role in advancing an uncertain administration trade agenda, said Daniel Pearson, a Cato Institute trade analyst and former International Trade Commission official, in a March 27 article. Biden launched three decades of pro-trade votes while a member of the Senate, beginning with his support for the Trade Act of 1974, said Pearson. Biden then voted against the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, along with opposing the Peru and Oman agreements, said Pearson. “This background may position Biden to provide helpful outreach to members of Congress who have doubts about the administration’s trade agenda,” said Pearson. “Since he has found himself voting both for and against market-opening initiatives, perhaps he would have credibility in explaining why liberalization is the right choice now.”

The U.S., along with 12 other nations, called for strengthened surveillance over nuclear and radiological material and weapons trafficking through the maritime shipping system during the Nuclear Security Summit at The Hague on March 26. The partner nations will try to maintain effective radiation detection systems and response procedures at their large container seaports, and assist other states that need help to develop such systems and procedures, said the White House. “Installed radiation detection systems have been responsible for the detection of various nuclear and radiological materials out of regulatory control, such as Georgia and Moldova. In several instances, these systems have been involved in the detection of the smuggling of nuclear materials that could be used for a weapon,” said the release. “These cases help to underscore the importance of radiation detection systems at key international checkpoints.”

President Barack Obama, and heads of state from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, formally ousted Russia from an alliance now labeled the G7 on March 24, and generally agreed to increase sanctions in the Russian energy, banking and arms sectors, a senior administration official told reporters in a press briefing. “A decision was taken that the G7 energy ministers should meet in the coming weeks to strengthen the collective energy security of the G7,” said a senior administration official. “And this provides a forum to discuss ways, for instance, to diversify energy supply for Europe as we consider potential sectoral sanctions, including on the energy sector in Russia.” Some U.S. lawmakers have been pushing for increased U.S. natural gas exports to Europe to alleviate dependence on Russian natural gas imports (see 14030614). The meeting came during the Nuclear Security summit.

President Barack Obama and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership as a tool to create bilateral, U.S.-European Union growth during public comments that followed a March 24 meeting between the two heads of state at The Hague in the Netherlands. “We’re already among each other’s largest trade and investment partners, but we can always do more,” said Obama, according to a transcript released by the White House. “And so I appreciated the Netherlands’ strong support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, which can fuel growth both in the United States and in Europe, especially for our small and medium-sized companies.” Obama traveled to The Hague for the Nuclear Security Summit. The U.S. and EU concluded the most recent TTIP round of negotiations on March 14 (see 14031101). Obama also met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 24 at The Hague, but the two leaders did not discuss trade in remarks that preceded the bilateral, according to a transcript released by the White House.

The administration is unlikely to secure Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), nor will it conclude Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations, before the end of President Barack Obama’s second term, said Cato trade analyst Daniel Pearson. The administration is not demonstrating obvious commitment to TPA passage, and the absence of TPA legislation could derail trade pact negotiations, said Pearson, in an argument commonly referenced by critics of the administration’s trade policy. “It seems inconceivable that the other countries negotiating TPP or TTIP would be willing to complete those packages under circumstances in which Congress would be free to amend them by refusing to approve provisions that are politically sensitive in the United States,” said Pearson. “Ambassador Froman appears to be interested in completing the TPP negotiations, then using that agreement as bait to get the Congress to vote in favor of fast-track authority. That approach is backward and has a very low probability of working.” TTIP is more likely to survive a continuing period of U.S. domestic political uncertainty on the trade agenda, but TPP faces more difficult obstacles, said Pearson

President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping March 24-25 during the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Netherlands, the Chinese state media agency Xinhua said on March 17. The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry on whether trade issues will be discussed.