The title of the panel discussion was "21st Century Management at our Ports of Entry," but panelists acknowledged that there are many ways the border operates that aren't modern at all.
The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
In the June 21 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
The European Union is setting exceptions to upcoming prior notification requirements for imports of plants, animals and animal products, it said in a notice published June 21. Under regulations set to take effect in December, the operator responsible for consignments entering the EU from non-EU member states must give prior notification to EU customs authorities at least one working day before arrival. The new notice provides that, if compliance with the one-day prior notification requirement is not possible due to transport-related logistical restraints, the relevant member state may allow prior notification at least four hours prior to arrival of the shipment, the notice said. On the other hand, for imports of unprocessed logs and sawn and chipped wood, the relevant member state may require prior notification of up to five days in advance of arrival, to allow for arrival of a mobile border controls team. The exceptions take effect Dec. 14, 2019, when the general one-day prior notification requirement also takes effect.
Walmart and its Brazilian subsidiary settled for $137 million after the Department of Justice said both violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a June 20 press release. The subsidiary, WMT Brasilia S.a.r.l, pleaded guilty to the charges.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 20 advanced a bill that would impose sanctions on Burmese officials and military-owned entities, for human rights abuses. The bill, named the Burma Act of 2019, would also sanction current and former senior officials of the Burmese military -- and any entities they own -- who took “significant steps to impede investigations or prosecutions of alleged serious human rights abuses.” The bill would also sanction entities, such as the Myanmar Economic Cooperation or the Myanmar Economic Holding Corporation, that are controlled by Burmese security forces. The sanctions would take effect for an eight-year period beginning 270 days after the bill is enacted. The bill next heads to the House floor.
CBP is pushing back by another 30 days the change of Automated Export System codes 227 and 007 from “informational” to “fatal,” it said in a CSMS message. Code 227, Forwarding Agent Party Missing, and Code 007, Header Filer ID Type Must be E or D, had been set to transition to fatal errors on June 22. They will now become AES fatal errors on July 20.
The Trump administration is continuing sanctions against North Korea, the White House said June 21, citing the risk it poses to U.S. national security. The White House pointed to North Korea’s “proliferation of weapons-usable fissile material,” the destabilizing actions of the country’s government that “imperil” U.S. trading partners in the region, and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The sanctions were scheduled to expire June 26. The move extends an executive order from June 26, 2008, that declared a national emergency with regard to North Korea.
The European Union Council renewed sanctions against Russian people and entities for the “illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation,” according to a June 20 council decision. The sanctions ban all imports into the EU originating in Crimea or Sevastopol except if those goods were “granted a certificate of origin by the Government of Ukraine,” according to the original decision. The sanctions were renewed for one year until June 23, 2020.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned four Nicaraguan government officials who allegedly “persecute Nicaraguan citizens,” “enact repressive laws,” silence the press and restrict medical care to the country’s people, Treasury said in a June 21 press release. OFAC is sanctioning Gustavo Eduardo Porras Cortes, Orlando Jose Castillo Castillo, Sonia Castro Gonzalez and Oscar Salvador Mojica Obregon.