New Chinese electric bike standards took effect April 15, according to a notice from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and will impact the production, sale and use of the bikes. The announcement, made by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Ministry of Public Security, strengthens the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) system as applied to e-bikes, the notice said. The changes will ensure that “no restrictions are imposed on the sale of imported CCC-compliant e-bikes,” according to the notice. The changes will also improve oversight “of the relevant certification bodies and production enterprises” to ensure bikes meet the country’s standards and that “non-compliant” bikes are not sold, the notice said. The changes also dictate the “destruction” of all non-CCC-compliant e-bikes.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking in Beijing to a group of 5,000, including 37 countries' prime ministers, presidents and vice presidents, said that China will continue to reform its economy in a number of ways, and that it intends to increase imports of good and services. According to an official English translation of the April 26 speech, Xi said, "China is both a global factory and a global market. With the world's largest and fastest growing middle-income population, China has a vast potential for increasing consumption. To meet our people's ever-growing material and cultural needs and give our consumers more choices and benefits, we will further lower tariffs and remove various non-tariff barriers."

Rep. Vern Buchanan, the Florida Republican who's ranking member of the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, is co-sponsoring a bill that would impose sanctions on companies that make and send fentanyl to the U.S. Buchanan, joined by Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., introduced the bill April 10. The bill, H.R. 2226, notes that the Treasury Department used the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act to sanction a synthetic opioid trafficker in April 2018, but says "precision economic and financial sanctions policy tools are needed to address the flow of synthetic opioids." The bill is a companion to a bipartisan Senate bill introduced earlier in the month by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (see 1904040028). It would require the administration to publicly identify the companies that are selling fentanyl to dealers, bar imports of any kind from those companies, freeze their assets, deny visas to its officials and cut them off from the U.S. banking system. Congress would dedicate $600 million for investigations to uncover which companies are responsible.

A bipartisan bill that would prohibit importation, exportation and interstate trade of bear viscera or products advertised as containing bear viscera was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 10. Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; Rodney Davis, R-Ill.; Ann Kuster, D-N.H.; and Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., co-sponsored H.R. 2264. The Bear Protection Act of 2019 says, "thousands of bears in Asia are cruelly confined in small cages to be milked for their bile, and the wild Asian bear population has declined significantly in recent years, as a result of habitat loss and poaching due to a strong demand for bear viscera used in traditional medicines and cosmetics." It also said that while most American black bear populations are stable or increasing, some bears have been poached for their viscera, and if that commercial trade grew, it could threaten American bear populations.

Automated Export System Electronic Export Information filers should take steps to verify the correct port of export code, the Census Bureau said in a blog post. "First, verify the port of export code that you are reporting in the AES is valid for the mode of transportation of your shipment," the agency said. "Appendix D of the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) on the CBP’s website is an important resource, and it provides a full list of export port codes as well as valid modes of transportation for each port." It's also considered a "best practice to contact the carrier of your shipment and verify the port of export information." Fatal errors can be resolved by correcting and retransmitting the export filing, it said.

The Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements was updated to reflect the State Department's changes involving International Traffic in Arms Regulations for U.S. government transfers (see 1904180024), CBP said in a CSMS message.

The Food Safety Inspection Service will soon begin collecting fees for export certificates it issues through the Public Health Information System Export Component, it said in a notice. Effective June 1, FSIS will collect a $4.01 application fee for applications submitted through the system. FSIS continues to incrementally add countries to the system, which allows exporters to electronically submit, track and manage their export applications, FSIS said. The initial deployment of the PHIS Export Component in June 2018 covered certificates for Afghanistan, Andorra, Bahamas, Bolivia, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cook Islands, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, San Marino, Tanzania, Uganda; additional countries added as of May 20 include Angola, Antarctica, Aruba, Bhutan, Botswana, Bouvett Island, Brunei Darussalam, Christmas Island, Comoros, Eritrea, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Islands, Greenland, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lesotho, Liechtenstein and Vietnam.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Venezuelan officials who it called “corrupt [Nicolas] Maduro insiders,” according to an April 26 press release. OFAC added Jorge Alberto Arreaza Montserrat, Venezuela’s minister of Foreign Affairs, and Carol Bealexis Padilla de Arretureta, a Venezuelan court judge, to the Specially Designated Nationals List.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing regulations for sanctions surrounding foreign interference in U.S. elections, according to an April 26 notice. The regulations require the director of national intelligence to investigate any information that points to the possibility of foreign interference within 45 days after the conclusion of U.S. elections and recommend “remedial actions” for the U.S. government to take, other than sanctions. The regulations also list provisions for sanctioning those involved in election interference, including blocking any U.S.-related “property and interest.”

President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will not ratify the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. Trump made the announcement during a speech at a National Rifle Association of America event on April 26. The White House said the treaty "cannot achieve its chief objective of addressing irresponsible arms transfers if these major arms exporters" -- including Russia and China -- "are not subject to it at all." The U.S. signed onto the treaty in 2013, but it was never ratified by the Senate as required. "The United States export controls have long been considered the gold standard for engaging in responsible arms trading and we will continue to use them under our own laws," the White House said.