Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., urged the Trump administration to make Huawei a focal point of negotiations with China and to reject requests from China to discuss Huawei in another setting. “I have a concise and pointed request to the White House this morning: tell China 'forget about it,'” Schumer said, speaking on the Senate floor Sept. 12. “Don’t let China exclude our nation’s security and Huawei from the negotiations.”
China criticized a bill passed by the U.S. Senate that urges the Trump administration to sanction Chinese officials responsible for the oppression of the country’s Uyghur population.
The U.S. and Turkey created sectoral committees to reach the two sides’ $100 billion trade goal, the two countries said at a Sept. 10 press conference. The committees will help with the goal -- initially announced by President Donald Trump during his June G-20 meeting with Turkey -- by bringing together Turkish and American business circles to promote trade, according to a report from the Daily Sabah. The committees will be run by the two countries' trade ministries, the report said.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce led a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressing fear that the mini deal nearing completion with Japan will stall momentum for a broader trade negotiation. "We respectfully urge the Administration to hold fast to its commitment to achieve a comprehensive, high-standard trade agreement with Japan and ensure this initial package does not impede momentum toward such a broader accord." The Chamber and 13 trade groups said a comprehensive trade deal should address services, including express delivery, customs administration and trade facilitation, regulatory cooperation, intellectual property and more.
The Census Bureau removed a port of export code from the Automated Export System, the agency said in a Sept. 12 email. The deleted code was 5589 for Meacham International Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, which was added to AES in April (see 1904190050).
The Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the Foskett speckled dace (Rhinichthys osculus ssp.), a fish native to Oregon, from the Endangered Species List, it said in a final rule. Threats to the species have been "eliminated or reduced to the point where it no longer meets the definition of an endangered species or a threatened species," FWS said. The delisting takes effect Oct. 15.
The Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing to control benzylfentanyl and 4-anilinopiperidine and their amides, carbamates and salts as list I chemicals under the Controlled Substances Act. The two chemicals are used in the manufacture of fentanyl, DEA said. DEA is not proposing a threshold for domestic and international transactions for these chemicals, so “all transactions of chemical mixtures containing benzylfentanyl or 4-anilinopiperidine will be regulated at any concentration and will be subject to control under the CSA,” the agency said. Comments are due Nov. 12.
The Congressional Research Service released a report Sept. 11 on U.S. sanctions on Iran, detailing how sanctions are used within the Trump administration, the impact of the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and more. The 110-page report includes information on how sanctions are triggered; what type of trade between the two countries is allowed; detailed descriptions of U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil, energy and military sectors; an overview of European sanctions on Iran; and possible future sanctions.
A U.S. website infrastructure company said it may have violated U.S. sanctions and export reporting requirements, according to its regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cloudflare, based in California, told the SEC it voluntarily disclosed possible export and sanctions violations to the Bureau of Industry and Security and the Office of Foreign Assets Control this year. The violations included submitting “incorrect information” about hardware exports to Commerce and receiving payments from people and entities on OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List.
An interim final rule involving International Traffic in Arms Regulations definitions for activities that aren’t classified as exports, re-exports or transfers is under review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the OIRA said in a Sept. 10 notice. The rule aims to amend the ITAR to create definitions for several activities, including launching items into space, “providing technical data” to U.S. people either in the U.S. or in a “single country abroad,” and moving defense goods between U.S. states, according to the OIRA. The definitions would also remove requirements related to the “electronic transmission and storage of unclassified technical data via foreign communications infrastructure when the data is secured sufficiently to prevent access by foreign persons,” the OIRA said.