A new bill with bipartisan support would authorize more U.S. sanctions against those responsible for the military coup and subsequent human rights abuses in Myanmar. The Burma Unified through Rigorous Military Accountability Act of 2021 also would require the State Department to designate an official to coordinate U.S. sanctions against Myanmar and push for more multilateral sanctions among allies.

Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade will open an investigation into evasion of trade remedies for sugar products from Thailand, the state-run CustomsNews said, after receiving a petition from the Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association and other domestic cane sugar refineries. The petition claims Thai producers are skirting antidumping and anti-subsidy duties on the subject merchandise by importing it through Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar. The relevant AD and anti-subsidy duties were imposed on June 15.

Although President Joe Biden’s new executive order authorizing sanctions against Ethiopia (see 2109170036) allows for a potentially broad scope of designations, it also signals that the administration will take a slow, cautious approach to its new authorities, law firms said. Companies shouldn’t expect immediate U.S. action against Ethiopia, the firms said, as the administration seems primarily concerned about deterring bad behavior and assuring humanitarian access can still flow to the region.

India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade published the conditions under which Malawi exporters can ship tur (pigeon peas) to India, per a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum says India will allow 50,000 metric tons of the peas to be imported from Malawi over the next five fiscal years, 2021-22 through 2025-26. The peas will only be allowed to enter through five ports: Mumbai, Tuticorin, Chennai, Kolkata and Hazira. The pea shipments will be subject to "Certificate of Origin" certification by the "authorized signatories of Customs and Excise Division of Malawi Revenue Authority with stamps provided by the Government of Malawi." A scanned copy of the Origin Certificate will be sent by the authorizor to policy2-dgft@gov.in, and the Indian importer will send an email to DGFT with a scanned copy of the certificate along with the Importer-Exporter Code information, the release said.

The United Kingdom's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added an individual and an entity to its Myanmar sanctions list for perpetuating human rights violations in the country, including the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim minority population, it said in a Sept. 2 notice. OFSI added arms dealer Tay Za and the Htoo Group of Companies that he owns to the sanctions regime, subjecting them to an asset freeze and travel ban.

Myanmar’s corn exports rose “significantly” over the past year despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the military coup, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a recent report. Myanmar exporters have been unable to meet the high corn demand from neighboring Thailand, USDA said, and are also benefiting from a newly finalized sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with China. But USDA expects “fewer exportable supplies” for the remainder of the 2020-2021 fiscal year “due to the record exports during the first eight months.” The country-wide instability caused by the military coup initially crippled Myanmar’s logistics industry (see 2103090005), but trade has managed to continue (see 2107120011).

The European Council announced July 27 that additional countries aligned their sanctions regimes with the European Union's regarding restrictive measures on individuals and entities in Myanmar and in response to the annexation of Crimea. Montenegro, Albania, Norway, Ukraine and Georgia aligned with the Crimea-related sanctions. North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Ukraine and Moldova aligned with the Myanmar restrictions. The latter sanctions include eight individuals and four entities subject to restrictive measures.

A Commerce Department technical advisory committee is considering proposing an exception for U.S. deemed export regulations to allow U.S. businesses to better compete with foreign companies. The potential exception, which hasn’t been finalized but was discussed during a July 27 meeting of the Sensors and Instrumentation Technical Advisory Committee, would authorize certain deemed exports to company employees, contractors or interns if the items are for “internal company use.” Committee members said the exception wouldn’t be eligible for deemed exports to foreign nationals from Country Groups E:1 and E:2, which includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria.

The United Kingdom should hasten the imposition of sanctions on Myanmar businesses and other entities in key industries on which the ruling junta is dependent, a July 16 report from the U.K. House of Commons' Foreign Affairs Committee said. The report also called on the government to encourage other nations that do not have Myanmar sanctions in place to implement them and ensure that third-country financial institutions support U.K.-implemented sanctions placed on junta-backed businesses and individuals.

Although the Myanmar military coup has destabilized the country and damaged the economy (see 2103090005), imports are being cleared and trade is “continuing in some fashion or another,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said in a July 8 report. U.S. agricultural shipments are entering the country “normally,” although a lack of shipping lines has led to a container shortage. USDA also said the “current unstable security situation,” banking disruptions and a third COVID-19 wave are “but a few of the ongoing obstacles that impedes economic stability.”