In the May 20 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of May 20 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Egypt recently changed its U.S. beef import requirements when the country “delisted” all but one of U.S. halal certifiers and announced that it is now accepting shipments from U.S. beef facilities that have been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service, according to a USDA Foreign Agricultural Service notice published May 17. With the change, Egypt approved “only one of the eight U.S. halal certifiers” to certify shipments to Egypt, and “suspended or rejected” the remaining seven “without explanation,” USDA said. The new halal certifying organization is IS EG Halal Certified, based in New Jersey, the report said. "The firm is not known to have a preexisting relationship with the U.S. beef industry or Islamic organizations in the United States," according to the notice. Therefore, USDA said, exporters who ship beef to Egypt should contact the new certifier “directly to clarify certification procedures.” The changes are believed among those in the industry to have taken effect May 1, though the official date was not indicated, according to the report.

Ara Dolarian, owner of arms brokering company Dolarian Capital Inc., is facing criminal charges over the illegal brokering of arms sales, the Department of Justice said in a May 20 news release. Although the State Department denied applications from Dolarian to broker arms deals, the company "allegedly attempted to broker a multi-million dollar transfer of high‑explosive bombs, rockets, military-grade firearms, and aircraft-mounted cannons from Eastern Europe and South Africa to the government of Nigeria," said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California. "Without approval from the State Department, Dolarian allegedly accepted approximately $8.3 million from Nigeria and its broker," the DOJ said. Those funds were then funneled through numerous shell companies and were used by Dolarian to pay off various expenses, it said. Dolarian is alleged to have willfully violated the International Traffic in Arms Regulations prohibitions on "brokering activities" without State approval, according to the complaint.

The U.S. should impose sanctions and limit weapons shipments from countries and companies that contribute to terrorism and conflict in Libya, panelists said at a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing on May 15. The Subcommittee on the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism sought testimony on "The Conflict in Libya."

The Trump administration's decision to examine emerging technologies as candidates for export controls could cost U.S. businesses tens of billions of dollars and threaten thousands of jobs, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said in a new report. If substantial export controls are enacted, the report warns, firms “could lose $14.1 [billion] to $56.3 billion in export sales over five years, with missed export opportunities threatening from 18,000 to 74,000 jobs.”

Canada and Mexico each on May 20 ended their retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods in response to the end of U.S. Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum products from the two countries (see 1905170058). General safeguard duties set by each country remain in place but don’t affect U.S. exports.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is issuing a general license temporarily allowing certain transactions with Huawei and 68 of its affiliates without new licensing requirements set by their recent addition to the Entity List. The general license is scheduled for publication in the May 22 Federal Register, and will remain in effect from May 20 through Aug. 19.

In the May 17 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

Mexican customs will not enforce certificate of compliance requirements for imports of automobile safety belts at the time of entry into the country, said the Confederation of Mexican Customs Broker Associations in a May 15 bulletin. At this time, there are no accredited and approved certification bodies to evaluate conformity with Mexican standards for safety belts under Mexican tariff schedule subheading 8708.21.01, the bulletin said. The exemption will remain in place until one year after the policy was issued on May 2.