The chairman of a committee on trade negotiations made up of major Mexican business groups said June 10 that he knows of no deal to guarantee U.S. exports of agricultural products to Mexico, according to a report in the Mexican newspaper Milenio. Moises Kalach, chair of the Strategic Consultative Council on International Negotiations of Mexico’s Business Coordination Council, told the newspaper that “the information that we have is that there is no business agreement, nor export limits, nor purchases of American products; the deal is solely on topics related to immigration.” Kalach said there’s no way to make such a deal because private companies buy American goods, and there’s no way to obligate them to buy them.
The future for international trade with Canada is closely aligned with what will happen in the U.S. on several fronts, Canada-based law firm Bennett Jones said in its spring 2019 economic outlook report. The likelihood of passing an updated NAFTA recently got a boost through the end to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada and Mexico and the retaliatory tariffs from those two countries, the law firm said. Still, the U.S. said it expects monitoring and surge prevention related to steel and aluminum, though it remains unclear exactly how this will occur. "It is not unlikely that difficult bilateral discussions still lie ahead, although it is to be hoped that the Americans would not readily reimpose these tariffs," the firm said.
China is preparing to allow Belarus “greater access” to its markets, according to a June 11 report from Belarus News, which cited comments made by Cui Qiming, China’s ambassador to Belarus. Cui said China is expanding market access for a range of states and will “keep promoting diversification of trade,” the report said. The ambassador also briefly touched on the U.S.-China trade negotiations, saying the dispute has caused “great concern in the international community” and that the U.S. is trying to intimidate multiple countries with tariff threats, including China, the European Union, Japan and Mexico.
New Jersey resident Joyce Eliabachus pleaded guilty to charges related to her role in illegally smuggling millions of dollars worth of aircraft parts to the U.S., the U.S. Attorney’s Office for District of New Jersey said in a June 11 news release. "Eliabachus and others allegedly ran an international smuggling ring that shipped $2 million in aircraft parts to multiple Iranian airlines, including a company that has provided financial, material, and technological support to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,” U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. “This arrest, which was made possible by a close collaboration between our office and our partners at Homeland Security Investigations and the Office of Export Enforcement, has snuffed out another source of funds and goods to overseas entities that may endanger our national and economic security.” Eliabachus was the principal officer of Edsun Equipments LLC, an aviation parts trading company run out of her Morristown, New Jersey, residence, the Justice Department said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it is “deeply concerning” that the White House is seeking a two-year delay on implementing government contracting and procurement-related restrictions on Huawei Technologies, saying the delay would “extend a window of opportunity for what is already a dire threat to our national security.” Speaking on the Senate floor on June 11, Schumer criticized what he said is the Trump administration's contradictory approach to China.
The U.S. Small Business Administration's State Trade Expansion Program has been mostly effective, business owners and trade industry leaders said during a House Small Business subcommittee panel on June 11, helping them export to international markets and expand their businesses. But the panelists also advocated for changes, such as a reduction in the “administrative burden” caused by the program. The discussion came as Congress prepares to reauthorize the program, which was created by the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 and which provides grants to states to increase exporting opportunities for small businesses.
The State Department is upholding a Foreign Terrorist Organization designation for Shining Path, a narcotics-trafficking group based in Peru, State said in a notice scheduled to be published June 12 in the Federal Register. Circumstances surrounding the group’s designation have not changed and there is no reason to revoke the designation, the notice said. Shining Path was sanctioned in 2015 for operating as a terrorist group committed to the overthrow of Peru’s government, OFAC said in a press release at the time.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 3-7 in case they were missed.
Treasury’s Office of Foreign assets Control sanctioned 16 people and entities, including Syrian oligarch Samer Foz, to cut off “critical supplies and financiers” for Syria's “luxury reconstruction and investment efforts," Treasury said in a June 11 press release. Treasury said Foz has “been profiting heavily front reconstruction efforts” in Syria by building luxury developments on land seized by Syria.
The U.S. should impose harsher sanctions on the Nicaraguan government, the Daniel Ortega regime and the country’s business leaders or risk the country devolving into a similar situation the U.S. faces with Venezuela, panelists told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Civilian Security and Trade on June 11.