Although Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley represents Iowa, a major pork, corn and soybean exporting state, he's not concerned about the figures President Donald Trump touted as he described the outlines of a Phase 1 deal with China. Trump said China would be buying up to $50 billion in American commodities; other administration figures later clarified the promise was for $40 billion to $50 billion, and it would ramp up over two years.
Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., joined four House members in asking Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to look into possible Global Magnitsky sanctions against Kuwait. The Sept. 27 letter, posted by Crowell & Moring, asks Mnuchin to investigate Kuwait after the conviction and imprisonment of Maria Lazareva, a Russian businesswoman who was accused of embezzlement. Lazareva’s conviction was nullified by a Kuwait court after she served a year in prison.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who served as the Republican party whip for five years until 2018, said he doesn't think the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act would come up this week. The most likely way for the Hong Kong bill to move that quickly would be to see if it could be subject to unanimous consent, which means a voice vote with no debate. Bringing up a bill in this way is to "hotline" it.
China disputed claims from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that China is stealing U.S. intellectual property and that it is “difficult” for companies to make a profit in China, saying the U.S. is engaging in “bullying practices.” A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry pointed to a recent survey r released by the U.S.-China Business Council, which reported that 97 percent of the council’s members ran a profitable business in China. “I wonder how Mr. Pompeo came to the conclusion?” the spokesperson said during an Oct. 22 press conference.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control extended the expiration date of a Belarus-related general license, OFAC said in a notice. General License No. 2G, replacing No. 2F, authorizes certain transactions with nine Belarusian entities until April 26, 2021.
The U.S. and Great Britain are hosting the International Strategic Trade Controls and Border Security Conference in Edinburgh this week, at which more than 85 countries will discuss “dual-use and conventional arms policy, licensing, and enforcement to promote” to improve trade controls, the State Department said. The conference is focusing on chemical weapons, technology and equipment proliferation, the State Department said, and will stress the importance of updating controls on chemicals. The countries will also discuss challenges of “targeting, identifying, inspecting, and interdicting” illegal chemical shipments.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Oct. 15-18 in case they were missed.
Venezuela’s oil production will continue to drastically decline in 2020 if Nicolas Maduro stays in power, potentially crippling future Venezuelan oil trade, said Alejandro Grisanti, director of the ad hoc board for Petroleos de Venezuela set up by opposition party leader Juan Guaido. Speaking during an Oct. 22 Atlantic Council panel, Grisanti said Venezuela’s oil production will fall to 450,000 barrels per day in 2020 if Maduro stays in power. The country’s oil production has fallen from 1.5 million to about 750,000 barrels per day this year due to U.S. sanctions, Grisanti said.
The United Kingdom Parliament on Oct. 22 voted to approve the broad outlines of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new transition deal for exiting the United Kingdom. The 329-299 vote on the implementation bill’s “second reading” in Parliament would normally move the bill forward to a detailed examination of the bill at committee stage and then a final vote on the “third reading,” though U.K. lawmakers in a second vote rejected Johnson’s proposed three-day timetable for considering the bill and a new schedule has yet to be proposed, according to a report from the BBC.
The Commerce Department has received more than 200 Huawei-related license requests since the Chinese technology company was added to the agency’s Entity List, a Commerce spokesperson said. The agency is still reviewing the applications. “Given the complexity of the matter, the interagency process is ongoing to ensure we correctly identified which licenses were safe to approve,” the spokesperson said.