The delayed due dates for customs duties in Canada don't apply to debts due before March 25, the Canada Border Services Agency said in an April 11 email. “Debt due before March 25, 2020 is payable on the due date identified on the” Statement of Accounts, it said. “Debt due on or after March 25 2020, is payable on June 30, 2020. Only debt due on and after March 25, 2020 is eligible for the June extension,” it said. The CBSA recently extended the due date for regular customs duties to June 30 (see 2003270053).

Vietnam's textile, footwear and wood sectors are seeing a significant decline in exports as key markets cancel orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an April 12 report from CustomsNews, the mouthpiece for Vietnam Customs. “Major markets,” such as the European Union and the U.S., have canceled or suspended a range of orders, hitting Vietnamese textile and garment companies particularly hard, the report said. If the trend continues, the garment industry is expected to lose 3 trillion Vietnamese dong per month, the report said. In addition, Vietnamese timber companies have not signed new orders for the upcoming season because “customers are not coming to the factory to approve samples.”

China’s Commerce Ministry and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China signed a “memorandum of cooperation” in an effort to stabilize foreign trade and investment, the Commerce Ministry said April 13, according to an unofficial translation of a news release. The ministry said it will share more information about “foreign-invested” and “foreign funded enterprises” with the bank, which will allow the bank to increase “credit support” and offer more services to foreign companies during the COVID-19 pandemic, China said. These services include “cross-border supply chain finance, improved “service quality” and starting “green channels.”

China’s new export inspections for quality control on certain medical equipment (see 2004100043) caused “immediate” delays of shipments as traders and manufacturers tried to understand how best to comply, according to an April 11 report in The New York Times. Producers, freight agents and other stakeholders said the delays have lasted anywhere from a few hours to a few days, the report said.

Marshall Billingslea, the Treasury Department's former assistant secretary for terrorist financing, was named the special presidential envoy for arms control, the State Department said April 10. In the role, Billingslea will lead U.S. arms control negotiations, which will include a “new era” of arms control that “moves beyond the bilateral treaties of the past,” the State Department said. Billingslea has staunchly defended the U.S. sanctions and its maximum pressure campaign against Iran (see 1909130064).

The State Department’s Defense Trade Advisory Group will hold its May 14 meeting online due to the measures in place to control the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said in a notice. The meeting will feature discussions on improvements surrounding the Defense Export Control and Compliance System (see 2002190025), improving compliance guidelines for companies and universities, and more. The group, composed of industry representatives in the defense trade sector, advises the State Department on policies, regulations and technical issues impacting defense trade.

The Trump administration should take more “diplomatic action” to renew the expiring United Nations arms embargo on Iran, U.S. lawmakers said in a dear colleague letter being circulated. Even though Iran continually violates UN bans on arms transfers, the ban is an “important means” to restrict weapons sales to Iran, the lawmakers said in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The expiration of the arms embargo, which is set for October, could lead to more states buying and selling weapons to and from Iran, which could have “disastrous consequences” for U.S. national security. The lawmakers also urged Pompeo to “make clear” that U.S. sanctions on Iranian arms transfers will “remain in place and will be fully enforced.”

A group of 31 House lawmakers, led by Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Ind., is asking the U.S. trade representative to delay the switch-over to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement auto rules of origin (ROO), even as the USMCA takes over from NAFTA. The group's letter, sent April 10, said the delay “is necessary to allow the auto industry an appropriate adjustment period and account for delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alternatively, we ask that you seriously consider other accommodations or flexibilities that will allow the automotive sector to avoid being penalized by the new requirements upon the agreement’s entry into force.”

The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America seeks clarification from CBP on a number of issues related to implementation of a ban on exports of personal protective equipment (PPE) recently announced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (see 2004080018), according to an NCBFAA letter dated April 10. The letter includes questions on the scope of the FEMA notice, including the application of the ban to bonded transactions like warehouse withdrawals and goods in foreign-trade zones, as well as procedures for handling exports of covered PPE, such as processes for requesting FEMA authorization and contact information for FEMA. The letter also requests information on forwarder responsibilities under the policy and forwarder liability for detained PPE shipments. At least one of the questions, on whether the ban applies to exports to Canada and Mexico, was answered by an internal CBP memo dated April 9 that said exports to the two countries are exempt (see 2004090069).

The State Department is offering up to $10 million for information about Muhammad Kawtharani, a U.S.-sanctioned Specially Designated Global Terrorist, the agency said April 10. The offer, part of the State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program (see 1911080020), will be awarded for information on Kawtharani’s “activities, networks and associates,” the agency said, which will lead to the “disruption of the financial mechanisms” for terrorist organization Lebanese Hizballah.