The European Union is considering changes to its global safeguards on steel products in effect since July 2018 in response to U.S. Section 232 tariffs, the European Commission said in an Aug. 14 press release. According to a recent notification to the World Trade Organization, the EU is considering changes to tariff-rate quotas on several steel products, as well as a general slowing of increases on the quotas.

The Canada Border Services Agency issued a notice detailing duty eliminations and reductions in the Canadian Customs Tariff under the Canada-Costa Rica Free Trade Agreement and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). Both sets of changes took effect Aug. 8. The notice says remission will be granted on goods imported under subheading 4011.90.90, which is now duty-free under CPTPP, for which CPTPP treatment is claimed and that were imported Dec. 30, 2018, through Aug. 7, 2018, “provided the importer makes a claim for remission within two years after the date of importation.”

China’s expansion of its Shanghai Free Trade Zone could serve as a model for similar schemes in other zones across the country if it is successful, according to an Aug. 13 post from Dezan Shira & Associates. The recently approved plan includes "pioneering" policies in the newly incorporated Lingang area that are more than just a “simple expansion,” the post said. The expansion will double the size of the original Shanghai zone and will “facilitate freer activities in trade, investment, finance, talents, and information” in the new area of the zone, according to the post.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is introducing a system to simplify exports and imports of “cargo for scientific research purposes between scientific institutions,” Japan said in an Aug. 13 notice, according to an unofficial translation. Japan is allowing certain export and import exemptions for “designated animals and plants” under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the notice said. Scientific facilities using these exemptions will need to create an “import/export management system” to qualify for approval certificates, which will be valid for three years, Japan said. The changes will take effect in October.

Arizona's two senators -- a Democrat and a Republican -- are questioning the Commerce Department's efforts to update a recently terminated agreement between Mexico and the U.S. that ended an old antidumping case against Mexican tomatoes.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a Brexit that makes a full break with the European customs union will not be rewarded with a U.S. free trade deal. Pelosi, who issued a statement Aug. 14 after National Security Adviser John Bolton said that a free trade agreement with Britain could be done quickly after Brexit, though he said it would have to tackle easier issues first and tackle other sectors later.

Future Commerce Department export controls on artificial intelligence could end up blunting AI technology development in the U.S., according to an Aug. 8 post from Lowenstein Sandler.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 5-9 in case they were missed.

One of the top concerns of the U.S. firearms industry is the delay in transitioning export controls of firearms and ammunition from the State Department to the Commerce Department, said Larry Keane, senior vice president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. As the wait for Export Control Reform has increased -- beginning in 2009 under the Obama administration and continuing under the Trump administration -- the U.S. firearms industry increasingly feels as if it has been left behind, Keane said.

In the Aug. 13 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted: