Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for April 15-19 in case they were missed.
A New Jersey defense contractor pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Department of Justice said in a news release. Oben Cabalceta owned two New Jersey companies, Owen's Fasteners Inc. and United Manufacturer LLC. Cabalceta admitted to defrauding the Department of Defense by "providing military equipment parts that were not what he had contracted to provide and illegally accessing technical information because he was not a United States citizen," the DOJ said.
The Trump administration's proposal to transfer firearms-related export controls from the State Department to Commerce would cause significant harm to global security and would loosen necessary controls over dangerous weapons, according to a panel organized by Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif. Speaking at a House office building on April 23, gun-control experts and advocates attempted to debunk the administration's rationalization for transferring authority for gun export controls. Several pointed to the dangers of increased weapons exporting, saying the U.S. could become complicit in killings around the world. Others pointed to lapses in regulations if the changes take effect.
Skadden Arps partner Joseph Barloon will become general counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, after current general counsel Stephen Vaughn departs in a few weeks, USTR announced April 22.
The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:
Vietnam is adding more agricultural import procedures to its National Single Window, in pursuit of the country’s goal to complete its electronic filing system in 2019, according to a report from the General Department of Vietnam Customs’ mouthpiece CustomsNews. The newly available Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development functionalities include granting import permits for plant protection drugs, as well as import and export permits for plant genetic resources. The new additions bring the agriculture ministry up to 18 out of 35 of its procedures now available in the single window. A major initiative that remains to be completed is programming for quarantine and quality control for food, animal feed materials and aquatic products with animal and plant origins, the report said.
Chinese Customs will impose late tax payment charges for failure to declare dutiable royalties on Customs forms as part of broader customs changes taking effect May 1, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The broader changes, announced by China’s General Administration of Customs on March 27, relate to requirements for filers to notify Customs if a buyer is paying dutiable royalties on the imported goods, includng payments after importation (see 1904100029).
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is asking House colleagues to become original co-sponsors of the Brunei Sanctions Act by April 29, in an April 20 letter. The bill, which would sanction certain government officials in Brunei, would make use of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Omar's letter said the U.S. “has a duty to call out the blatant disregard for humanity and the violation of basic rights wherever we see them,” and this month “the Sultanate of Brunei instituted a brutal and draconian new Penal Code that would strip away the human rights of its citizens and strengthen the government’s authoritarian grip.” The laws mandate the death penalty for various offenses, including “adultery, consensual same-sex relations, blasphemy, and robbery,” she said. The code also permits “flogging” women who have abortions and amputations for those accused of theft, among other punishments, she said. The potential U.S. sanctions would be applied to any official “who implements this draconian penal code,” Omar said, to ensure they cannot travel to or do business with the U.S.
Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Martha Barcena, speaking April 22 at the Georgetown Law School conference on U.S. ratification of the new NAFTA, implored: "We need USMCA not to be taken as a political hostage. We need USMCA to be taken in its own merits." She also said, "We should not let politics stand in the way of free trade that has yielded benefits for both of our societies."