After current and former lawmakers asked the Treasury Department to clarify its stance on humanitarian exports to sanctioned countries, the agency pushed back on accusations that sanctions are stopping those exports, saying it does not target legitimate exported aid. Some of those accusations are marred by a misunderstanding of Treasury’s general licenses and exemptions, said sanctions lawyer Doug Jacobson: they do allow a broad range of humanitarian exports to countries like Iran.

The World Customs Organization, with help from the World Health Organization, updated its list of tariff classifications for COVID-19 medical supplies, the WCO said in a news release. The updated version expands on the first list (see 2003200061) to “cover a greater range of medical equipment and supplies that are required as critical items by the WHO, such as oxygen concentrators and sample collection sets,” it said. “The initial list contained the classification of essential products needed such as COVID-19 diagnostic test kits and masks, certain protective personal equipment and medical devices such as ventilators and ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), consumables and disinfectant products that may be used for the prevention and treatment of the disease.”

The Saudi Ports Authority recently announced a new shipping lane connecting Saudi Arabia with East African countries, according to an April 8 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The lane, provided by French shipping company CMA CGM, will provide a “weekly direct service” between Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Kenya, the report said. The lane is expected to cut shipping times between Africa and Saudi Arabia by seven days by eliminating the need for cargo to first travel through European ports, which took as long as 29 days.

The European Commission asked Schengen Area member states to extend restrictions on non-essential travel until May 15 to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the commission said April 8. The European Union originally requested a 30-day travel ban, but the virus requires “more than 30 days to be effective,” the commission said. The commission stressed that such a travel ban can only be effective if it is adopted by all EU and Schengen states “at all borders, with the same end date and in a uniform manner.”

Costa Rica's Rice Corporation asked the country’s government to open a “special tariff rate quota” for the importation of 60,000 metric tons of rice at “zero duty” for delivery in June and July, due to changed circumstances surrounding the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report released April 8. The request came as Costa Rican consumers “rushed” to supermarkets in March to buy “basic staples,” including rice and beans, as the country discovered its first cases of COVID-19 and social distancing norms were established. The TRQ would maintain the country’s rice supply, which is expected to further dwindle, the USDA said. The government is considering a “smaller TRQ,” the USDA said, most likely in the range of 40,000 metric tons.

The Treasury Department issued a current list of countries that require or may require participation in, or cooperation with, an international boycott. The list includes Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, unchanged from the previous iteration of the list.

The Drug Enforcement Administration is extending its listing of all “fentanyl-related substances” to Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, it said. The agency's temporary scheduling order, which covers “any substance not otherwise controlled in any schedule,” including substances not yet developed as of publication of DEA's notice, “that is structurally related to fentanyl” in certain ways, had been set to expire Feb. 6, 2020. But a law passed that day extended the temporary listing until May 6, 2021, the DEA said.

The European Union renewed its Iran human rights sanctions, the EU said in an April 8 notice. The sanctions were renewed until April 13, 2021.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control updated the North Korean Sanctions Regulations by adding new sanctions provisions and exemptions and amending the definition for “luxury goods,” according to a notice in the Federal Register. OFAC also made several technical edits to three definitions, revised an “interpretive provision” and updated the “authorities and delegations sections” of the regulations.

Switzerland recently amended its Goods Control Act to include export controls for surveillance goods, according to an unofficial translation of a March notice from the Swiss Federal Assembly. Although Switzerland previously had the authority to control exports of surveillance equipment, that authority was outlined in a temporary legislation, according to an April 8 post from the European Sanctions blog. The blog referred to “goods which could be used for internet or mobile phone surveillance.” The amendment will create a “legal basis” for surveillance export controls and will “transpose the current temporary regulation into ordinary law,” Switzerland said.