The State Department approved a potential military sale to Israel worth about $2.4 billion, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said March 3. The sale includes eight KC-46 aircraft and 17 engines along with receivers, radios and spare parts. The principal contractors are Boeing and Raytheon.
Four House members are asking for support for a letter to urge Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to push the United Nations to renew its arms embargo against Iran. The embargo, which expires in October, is an “important means to restrain the sale of weapons” to Iran, Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., Michael McCaul, R-Texas, Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said in the letter. The lawmakers also said that the expiration of the embargo may lead more states to trade weapons with Iran and may leave certain states feeling as though they do not have “sufficient legal authority to stop transfers once the U.N. embargo expires.”
Increases in Indian tariffs and a push by India to increase domestic manufacturing (see 2001270016) are hurting the toy industry, The Toy Association said March 3. The trade group said India recently issued its second duty increase on toys in two years, raising tariffs from 22% to 66% in February. The association said it is working with trade association partners in India, the European Union and elsewhere, and coordinating with the Trump administration to advocate against the tariff increases. But the effort is proving difficult due to India’s “Made in India” push driven by “a strained relationship between China and India and budgetary concerns,” the association said.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended an entry in its ISIL (Da’esh) and al-Qaida sanctions regulations, according to a March 4 notice. The action amends the entry for Amadou Koufa, the founder of a West African terrorist group who was sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council in February (see 2002050016). Koufa is still subject to an asset freeze.
Huawei was involved in illegally sending U.S.-origin computer equipment to Iran, according to a March 2 Reuters report. Reuters said it reviewed two Huawei “packing lists” from 2010 that show Huawei sent equipment made by Hewlett-Packard Co. destined for Iran’s largest mobile phone carrier. The documents provide the “strongest documentary evidence to date” of Huawei violating U.S. sanctions despite claims from Huawei that it has not violated sanctions, Reuters said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects China to begin fulfilling portions of its agricultural purchase commitments by the end of this summer, Secretary Sonny Perdue said during a March 4 House hearing. Although the coronavirus outbreak has delayed the purchase commitments under the phase one trade deal (see 2001150073) and thrown global agricultural trade into uncertainty, Perdue said the USDA has received “signals” that China intends to fully comply with the purchase agreements (see 2002250055). “We believe that China is a shrewd customer. They’re going to buy where the best deal is,” Perdue told the House Agriculture Committee. “We think they’ll come into this market in late spring and summer and fulfill the commitments.”
The Coalition of New England Companies for Trade won't hold its annual conference that was scheduled for March 31 - April 2 in Newport, Rhode Island, “due to growing concerns about Covid-19,” CONECT said on its website. "We are working to reschedule the conference and information will be posted when it is available," it said.
Commerce Department Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director Earl Comstock is leaving the department, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said March 2 in a news release. Comstock was reportedly heavily involved in the export restrictions on Huawei Technologies and the Section 232 investigations.
Hapag-Lloyd will require a minimum of four digits on Harmonized System codes to accompany U.S. and Canadian exports as of April 1, the carrier said in a notice. “To ensure high quality, faster Bill of Lading release and due to the increasing customs requirements of different countries throughout the world,” the company will require at least four digits “on your submission of Shipping Instructions for exports from Canada or the United States,” it said. When that information isn't available, “our documentation team will input an HS code that is determined to be suitably close to your commodity description,” it said. “It is your responsibility to review the inputted HS Code and advise if a correction is needed. Any costs, penalties or fines related to incorrect HS Code submission will be on customers account.”
Italy recently issued guidance to its rules on “letters of intent” for value-added tax relief for certain exporters, according to a March 2 KPMG post. The guidance outlines new procedures so “habitual exporters” can trade without application of VATs, KPMG said. Among several recent changes, those exporters no longer have to provide suppliers or Italian Customs with a “copy of the letter of intent or the tax authority’s receipt” and no longer have to post those letters in a “special ledger,” the post said.