The Commerce Department denied Paul Stuart Brunt export privileges after he was convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act, Commerce said in a notice. Brunt illegally exported firearms controlled under the U.S. Munitions List to Turkey and Iraq, the notice said. He was convicted March 1, 2019, and sentenced to three years of probation, required to perform 200 hours of community service and fined $20,000, the agency said. Commerce revoked Brunt’s export privileges for 10 years from his date of conviction.

The Department of Commerce denied Oguzhan Aydin export privileges after he was convicted of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Commerce said in a notice. Aydin illegally exported a “General Electric CF6-50c2” engine with the intent to supply the engine to Iran’s Mahan Airways, which also faces an export denial order (see 1912050032). Aydin shipped the engine through Turkey before it reached Iran, Commerce said. Aydin was convicted Aug. 3, 2016, and sentenced to about nine months in prison, three years of supervised release and a $100 fine. He was also added to the State Department’s Debarred List, the notice said. Commerce revoked Aydin’s export privileges for 10 years from his date of conviction.

The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security is seeking comments on procedures under which parties can request to be removed from Commerce’s Entity List and Unverified List, according to a Dec. 10 notice in the Federal Register. The information collection also includes procedures for requesting a “modification” to an entry on either list, BIS said. Comments are due Feb. 10, 2020.

Unions appear ready to endorse the changes Democrats won to the NAFTA rewrite, though the most radical change -- stopping goods at the border for labor violations -- isn't in the deal. On Dec. 9, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said to The Washington Post, “We have pushed them hard and have done quite well,” in getting changes to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. The House Democrats pushed for changes to the USMCA on labor, the environment, the biologics data exclusivity period and overall enforcement. If the AFL-CIO endorses their changes -- as seems likely after Trumka's comment -- passage in the House could follow quickly.

China hopes to reach a trade agreement with the U.S. “as soon as possible,” China said during a Dec. 9 press conference, adding that it plans to reduce import tariffs on industrial goods as part of a series of “guiding opinions” released by the State Council.

Telefonaktiebtolaget LM Ericsson, a multinational telecommunications company based in Sweden, was fined more than $1 billion for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said in a Dec. 6 press release. The penalty, stemming from a scheme to bribe government officials and falsify records, includes more than $520 million in criminal penalties and a $540 million penalty owed to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal announced that they have reached a deal with the Trump administration on changes to the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. They called the changes they won over the last six months a victory for workers. They did not share many details of how the environmental, labor, enforcement and biologics provisions changed, but said the text would be shared before votes in the House of Representatives.

The Basel Convention’s global ban on exporting e-waste and other hazardous materials to developing countries became international law Dec. 5, the Basel Action Network said. Ninety-nine countries have ratified the ban, but not the U.S., which “produces the most waste per-capita,” the green group said. Canada, Mexico and Japan are among nations that also have not ratified the ban.

Ukraine will extend tariffs on Russian goods for one year until Dec. 20, 2020, according to a Dec. 5 post from the European Sanctions blog. Ukraine previously expanded sanctions against Russia to ban imports of certain types of cement, plywood and lumber and to increase import tariffs on coal, gas and pharmaceutical products, the blog said.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Dec. 6 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):