In the June 19 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The Canada Border Services Agency plans to update its e-commerce program and will no longer be accepting applications for the Courier Low Value Shipment program, the CBSA said in a June 19 customs notice. A moratorium on the applications is effective June 3, it said. "In the interim, the Program will remain in effect for existing participants only," it said.

South Korea is set to make changes to its wood products standards, according to a recently filed notification to the World Trade Organization. The revised standards would apply to 12 types of wood products: sawn timber, preservative-treated wood, fire retardant-treated wood, glued laminated timber, plywood, particleboards, fiberboards, oriented strand board, wood flooring, wood briquettes, wood charcoal briquette, charcoal. South Korea expects they will enter into force Sept. 1, 2019.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who's been working for months on a compromise bill to address national security tariffs, said that an introduction won't happen until after the August recess. "We're trying to get a consensus on [Section] 232s, that isn't the easiest thing," he said. "But we're making some progress." He said, speaking to reporters on June 19, that he'd had meetings on the bill that day.

The Mexican Senate voted to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on June 19, positioning Mexico to become first of the three countries to approve the renegotiated NAFTA. There have been some initial movements toward consideration of the deal by the U.S. Congress, and Canada is seen as likely following the U.S.'s lead before its legislature gets fully engaged (see 1906110040).

The U.S. is continuing sanctions on the Western Balkans beyond the June 26 expiration date, extending a national emergency first declared June 26, 2001, according to a June 18 White House press release. The White House cited the continued threat of people involved in “extremist violence” in the region and acts that obstruct the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. The actions continue to pose an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security, the press release said.

Iran is reducing its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action because it said other JCPOA “parties do not abide by theirs,” according to a June 18 press release by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Russian Financial Society, a Russian financial services entity, after OFAC said it helped North Korea evade U.S. sanctions, Treasury said in a June 19 press release. Russian Financial Society provided or attempted to provide “financial, material, technological, or other support for” U.S.-sanctioned Dandong Zhongsheng Industry & Trade Co. Ltd, the press release said. Dandong Zhongsheng is owned by Foreign Trade Bank, North Korea’s “primary foreign exchange bank,” which is sanctioned by both the U.S. and the United Nations, Treasury said.

The day after President Donald Trump officially launched his re-election campaign, moderate Democrat Rep. Ron Kind warned the administration's top trade official that the China trade war is making voters in his home state of Wisconsin lose patience. Trump won Kind's district by 4 percentage points, and narrowly won Wisconsin in the Electoral College.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control will end its practice of allowing sanctions violators to satisfy OFAC penalties through payments to other agencies, changing how it calculates penalties in investigations that involve more than one enforcement agency, OFAC Director Andrea Gacki said.