The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is adding five new national security-related technologies to the Export Administration Regulations’ Commerce Control List, according to a notice in the Federal Register. The additions stem from changes made to the Wassenaar Arrangement’s List of Dual-Use Goods and Technologies agreed to during the 2018 Plenary meeting, the notice said. The changes add “recently developed or developing technologies” that are “essential” to U.S. national security: “discrete microwave transistors,” “continuity of operation software,” “post-quantum cryptography,” “underwater transducers designed to operate as hydrophones” and “air-launch platforms.” The notice is scheduled for publication and the changes take effect on May 23.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to remove Venezuela from Country Group B and add it to Country Groups D:1-4, which “lists countries of national security concern” and adds new licensing requirements while restricting the use of certain license exceptions for exports. The changes take effect May 24.

In the May 21 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

Brazil is streamlining certain requirements for imports of used machinery and equipment and goods eligible for tax benefits, the Brazilian Ministry of Economy said in a May 9 press release. In a notice published May 8, the Brazil Ministry of Economy extended the validity period of domestic production analyses, which form part of the initial stage of the approval process for used and benefit-eligible goods by determining whether there are any like domestic goods, according to an alert from the Hong Kong Trade and Development Council. Brazil is also adding several documents to its Ministry of Economy Electronic Information System (SEI/ME) related to importation of used production lines to expedite the import process, the press release said.

Brazil is temporarily lowering tariffs to zero percent on 315 capital goods and information and telecommunications technology goods under its Ex-Tarifario regime, according to a May 9 notice in the Brazilian Diario Oficial. The goods, classified in chapters 82, 84, 85, 86, 87 and 90 of the Brazilian tariff schedule, will remain duty free through Dec. 31, 2020, said the notice, which took effect May 13. The goods had been subject to tariff rates of 12 percent to 18 percent, according to a report in Brazilian news magazine Istoe. Brazil also established a tariff-rate quota allowing 6,000 tons of vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate co-polymers classified under Brazilian subheading 3904.30.00 to enter at a 2 percent duty for a period of 12 months, with out-of-quota merchandise entering at the regular rate of 14 percent, according to an alert from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The Ex-Tarifario system allows for temporarily duty free treatment for capital and ICT goods not made in Brazil, in a manner similar to the U.S. Miscellaneous Tariff Bill.

Argentina will exempt certain capital goods and temporary imports from a fee increase that took effect May 7, according to a notice in the country’s Boletin Oficial. Effective May 21, capital goods imported for production of hydrocarbons from unconventional reserves, as well as other capital goods under certain programs and all temporary imports, will be subject to a zero percent “tasa de estadistica” (statistical fee). Argentina had increased the fee, which is similar to the U.S. Merchandise Processing Fee, to 2.5 percent for all imports beginning May 7 (see 1905090056).

China recently announced the broad outlines of a new food safety plan that seeks to implement a “world-leading set of food safety standards” by 2035, said a report by state-run news agency Xinhua. Utmost efforts should be made in developing standards, conducting regulation, imposing penalties and seeking accountability, the plan said, according to Xinhua.

Information technology exports from the U.S. increased by 2.5 percent to an estimated $338 billion from 2017 to 2018, but export growth in that sector slowed, according to a 2019 technology trade report from the Computing Technology Industry Association. The report said growth slowed “slightly” compared to the 2017 rate of 4.5 percent. Since 2010, the report said, exports in the information technology sector experienced a 23 percent “aggregate growth” and added about “$65 billion in new earnings.”

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a speech on the Senate floor May 21, said he hopes that the administration does not repeat with Huawei what it did with ZTE, "where we stood tough at the beginning, it had an effect, and then we backed off."

That the U.S. made “unreasonable demands” on China “through maximum pressure” is the “underlying reason” why 11 rounds of negotiations “failed to yield an agreement,” a Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson said May 20. “This wouldn't work from the very beginning.” When U.S. threats didn't work and “instead led to widespread doubts at home and abroad as well as market fluctuations, the U.S. “resorted to muddying the waters and shifting the blame,” he said. “The international community bears witness to the sincere and constructive attitude China has shown in the past 11 rounds of negotiations.” There’s “hope for success only when the consultations proceed on the right track of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit,” he said. The Office of U.S. Trade Representative didn’t comment.