The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on three Chinese citizens and two Chinese entities for drug trafficking, Treasury said in an Aug. 21 press release. OFAC designated Fujing Zheng and his company, Shanghai-based Zheng Drug Trafficking Organization (Zheng DTO), under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. OFAC also sanctioned Xiaobing Yan for being a drug trafficker, Guanghua Zheng for supporting Zheng DTO and Shanghai-based Qinsheng Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., for being owned by Zheng.

The United Kingdom’s department of Revenue and Customs on June 10 submitted written evidence to an inquiry from the U.K.’s Committee on Arms and Export Controls. The questions and answers document includes details on how the department determines enforcement penalties for export violations, how the department decides when to proceed with certain cases, the department’s “high vacancy rate” among staff and more. The department also addressed why it only conducted six “full criminal investigations” of a total of 652 "preliminary assessments" of potential breaches of export controls in 2016, difficulties in investigating end-user violations and what plans it has for preparing U.K. export controls after Brexit.

CBP officials applauded the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s report on improving trade in the Northern Triangle but said the report’s recommendations won’t lead to change unless COAC receives more of a commitment from the U.S. government. “It must be consistent and sustainable,” Josephine Baiamonte, CBP’s executive director for the International Operations Division of the Office of International Affairs, said during an Aug. 21 COAC meeting in Buffalo, New York. “Those two things are the things that are missing right now.”

Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security issued a guidance on Aug. 20 about the disclosure of technology or software subject to export controls “between and among members of standards setting or development groups or bodies.” BIS said it issued the guidance after receiving “a number of questions” about the temporary general license for Huawei and the Chinese company’s addition to the Entity List. The guidance tries to clarify which activities are prohibited among standards organizations when discussing Huawei and its Entity Listing.

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

In the Aug. 20 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The European Union’s new EU Customs Trader Portal will debut on Oct. 1, and will for a time run parallel to the current EU Trader Portal before replacing the legacy system entirely, the Netherlands Tax and Customs Administration said in an Aug. 20 news release. Developed by the European Commission, the new portal will allow traders to apply for and manage Authorized Economic Operator certificates and Binding Tariff Information decisions. “If your organisation already has an AEO certificate or BTI, you will soon receive a notification from Customs,” Dutch Customs said.

Vietnam issued a circular to update the rules of origin regulations under the recent agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China, Vietnam Customs' mouthpiece CustomsNews said in an Aug. 20 report. Vietnam clarified how rules of origin apply to goods, “origin criteria for converting commodity codes at level of 4 digits” and regulations on the de minimis level. The circular will take effect Sept. 12.

China is adopting new measures to revise the rules of origin guidelines in its agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China’s General Administration of Customs said in an Aug. 20 notice, according to an unofficial translation. The changes, which took effect Aug. 20, will help China “correctly determine the origin of import and export goods” under the agreement and “promote economic and trade exchanges between” China and ASEAN member countries. China said its customs agencies began accepting certificates of origin issued by ASEAN member countries on Aug. 1.

China is increasing import restrictions on fruit and vegetable products from Vietnam, Vietnam Customs' mouthpiece CustomsNews said in an Aug. 19 report. Vietnam said China’s recently released plans will “apply stricter requirements and standards” on Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable imports in addition to China’s requirements that all fruits are “given codes indicating both growing areas and their packaging facilities.” If Vietnam does not agree to the higher standards, China will reject “all certificates and codes granted by Vietnam,” the report said. Vietnam’s Plant Protection Department is urging all packaging facilities to “strictly follow the standards set forth by China,” the report said.