Wiggin and Dana has added David Laufman, former chief of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office, the firm said in a press release. Laufman will co-chair the firm’s National Security Practice Group and will join their White-Collar Defense, Investigations and Corporate Compliance Practice Group and the International Trade Compliance Group, it said.

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs recently imposed a £10,234.26 ($13,209.41) penalty on a U.K. exporter for unlicensed trading of body armor, it said in a notice to exporters. “The goods were not exported from the UK, but the transaction involved a UK national,” it said. “The Export Control Order 2008 requires a trade control licence when certain goods are exported from a country other than the UK.”

In the May 13 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The European Union on May 10 published a report on its member states’ procedures for domestic and cross-border value-added tax (VAT) refunds, including for VAT on imports. An EU directive issued in 2006 entitles importers and other purchasers of goods subject to VAT in a member state other than the country where they are established to a refund of that VAT if the goods or services are used for certain purposes. According to the report, 20 EU member states fully comply with the directive, but eight countries -- Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Spain – have procedures that don’t meet EU requirements. For example, Germany turns down some VAT refunds without explanation, while in some other countries, including Italy and Spain, national authorities can turn down VAT refund requests without explanation.

Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:

The Canada Border Services Agency is taking a closer look at surtaxes collected on "other US goods" as part of Canada's retaliatory tariffs on the U.S., KPMG said in a report. The agency has "come to the conclusion that the volume of imports of these products against the amount of surtax collected does not balance. So the CBSA [has] started to audit importers of all goods subject to surtaxes." There are more than 100 such audits underway in the Toronto area and "many more across Canada," KPMG said.

The Canada Border Services Agency updated a memorandum to include information on the CBSA's expanded role in "enforcing the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s aquatic animal health and plant health requirements that overlap with the Agency’s role respecting the Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations," the CBSA said May 13.

Beginning June 3, Singapore Customs is requiring companies and individuals to submit voluntary disclosures of customs violations electronically, the agency said in a May 15 notice. Traders must now fill out the application form online instead of faxing or emailing a copy, it said. Singapore Customs also said the submission must include by attachment a “cargo clearance permit, air waybill or bill of lading, packing list/purchase order/delivery order, commercial Invoice and any other relevant documents.” The notice includes a frequently-asked-question appendix on the topic.

India again delayed retaliatory tariffs on goods imported from the U.S., pushing the new start to June 16, according to a notice from India’s Ministry of Finance. The tariffs, first announced in May 2018, will target agricultural products, motorcycles, steel products, and phosphoric and boric acid, and are aimed at offsetting the $241 million in duties India expects its U.S. customers to pay on its steel and aluminum exports. The tariffs have been delayed multiple times after they were originally expected to take effect in June 2018. Many of the items already face high tariffs -- walnuts are taxed at 100 percent, fresh apples at 50 percent, chickpeas at 60 percent, motorcycles at 100 percent -- but the actions would add 10 percent more to many ag products, 20 percent more to walnuts and almonds, and 50 percent more to motorcycles.

A U.S. citizen and part-owner of a Honolulu-based engineering and consulting company was sentenced to 30 months in prison on May 13 for his involvement in a bribery conspiracy with a Micronesian government official, the Department of Justice said in a press release. Frank James Lyon had pleaded guilty in January after he was charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (see 1904040035). Lyon conspired with Master Halbert, a Micronesian official, to award Lyon’s company contracts from the Micronesian government in exchange for cash bribes, the department said. Lyon also bribed Hawaii state officials as part of the conspiracy, according to the press release. As a result, Lyon obtained contracts worth more than $10 million, the department said. Halbert pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in April; sentencing is scheduled for July 29.