Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security corrected one entry and removed eight others from the Unverified List after verifying and conducting an end-use check, BIS said in a notice. The correction changes the name of Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Technology to Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, BIS said. The eight removals from the list, all China-based, are: Beijing Bayi Space LCD Materials Technology Co., Hubei Flying Optical, Sunder Tools (Changxing) Technology, Wuhan Yifi Laser Equipment Co., Wuxi Hengling Technology Co., Xiamen Sanan Optoelectronics, Zhejiang Xizi Aviation and Zolix Instruments Co. The changes are scheduled to take effect June 27.

An escalating U.S. trade war with Europe would further accelerate the European Union’s efforts to sign free trade deals with other countries, potentially closing off more market access for U.S. exporters, panelists told a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee June 26.

An internal “review” at Micron Technology found the memory chip supplier could “lawfully resume shipping a subset of current products” to Huawei because they aren't subject to Commerce Department export administration regulations and entity list restrictions, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said on a fiscal Q3 call. Micron reinstated those shipments about two weeks ago, he said on June 25. Micron suspended all Huawei shipments immediately after release of the May 16 notice from Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security placing the Chinese telecom gear giant and 68 of its non-U.S. affiliates on the Entity List (see 1905240044), Mehrotra said. Micron did so to “ensure compliance” with the restrictions and begin its review, he said.

Acting CBP Commissioner John Sanders is leaving the agency, according to multiple reports. The resignation is effective July 5, according to Sanders' email to CBP employees, which was posted by Axios. A CBP spokeswoman confirmed the resignation and effective date. Sanders took over for Commissioner Kevin McAleenan after he became Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary (see 1904160010). According to a report in The New York Times, Acting Director of ICE Mark Morgan will take over at CBP. CBP didn't comment on that report.

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​

In the June 25 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

NAFTA foe Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who is on the working group seeking changes to the NAFTA replacement, joined with the president of the AFL-CIO, the head of Global Trade Watch, and a handful of progressive House members to say that Americans are demanding that the biologics exclusivity period be dropped from the trade deal.

House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said after a June 25 hearing on Mexican labor reform that the Democrats asking for changes to the NAFTA rewrite are asking for changes that are "relatively narrow." "Our hope is we can move with dispatch, get our concerns resolved, strengthen the agreement and move forward," he said, adding that trade deal votes "never get easy, putting them off."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced a bill on June 25 that would limit the ability of the executive branch to bypass congressional approval of foreign arms sales. The bill, called the Saudi Arabia False Emergencies Act, had bipartisan support and was advanced less than a week after the Senate voted to block billions of dollars worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that the Trump administration had announced May 24 (see 1906200052). The administration had used an emergency provision in the Arms Export Control Act to skip congressional approval.

Canada imposed sanctions on nine Nicaraguan officials under the country’s Special Economic Measures Regulations, Canada said in a June 21 press release. Canada announced the sanctions in response to “gross and systematic human rights violations committed in Nicaragua,” it said in a separate release. The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control also recently announced sanctions on four Nicaraguan government officials (see 1906210041). In fact, the Global Affairs Canada release said Canada is taking its actions in “coordination with the United States.”