Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said tariffs on autos are not related to national security. When asked to respond to news reports that the U.S. and Japan could not finish a deal because the U.S. was not willing to promise to spare Japanese autos from those tariffs, he said, "The president ought to give that assurance and get this show on the road."

Japan will eliminate or reduce tariffs on $7.2 billion of U.S. food and agriculture exports under a mini-deal with the country that the administration says replicates the agricultural access the U.S. would have received if it had joined the Trans Pacific Partnership. The U.S. Trade Representative announced the deal without saying when the agreement will come into effect. It does not require a vote of Congress to be ratified.

CBP will eliminate penalties for minor violations of Census Bureau export filing requirements as part of its upcoming electronic export manifest rollout, said Jim Swanson, director of CBP’s Cargo and Security Controls Division.

The Federal Maritime Commission will accept comments on its proposed interpretative rule on detention and demurrage charges until Oct. 31, the agency said in a notice. The agency previously said comments are due Oct. 17 (see 1909130026).

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

The port of Mombasa recently removed a $2,000 (in U.S. dollars) container deposit guarantee requirement, according to a Sept. 23 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The deposit guarantee was required for each container before being released for transportation, HKTDC said. The change was welcomed by the Rwanda's private sector businesses, which “have long had issues with the deposit scheme,” the report said.

In the Sept. 23 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs issued guidance on freight roll-on, roll-off (RORO) imports and exports between the U.K. and the EU if there's a no-deal Brexit. The guidance includes instructions for multiple parts of the process for moving goods from the U.K. to the EU, and vice versa.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Sept. 23 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

The Congressional Research Service issued an updated report on Sept. 13 on retaliatory tariffs and U.S. agriculture, detailing retaliatory tariffs imposed on the U.S. by China, Canada, Mexico, the European Union and more. The 49-page report also includes “key competitors” for China’s agricultural market, which U.S. agricultural sectors have been most affected by the tariffs, and the long- and short-term impacts of the tariffs on U.S. industries and the economy.