The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security is amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to add to the Unverified List 50 entities with addresses in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Thirty-seven of the 50 additions are located in China. The agency's final rule also removes 10 entities and adds one address for a person currently on the list. The Unverified List includes entities for which the U.S. government failed to complete satisfactory end-use checks, and therefore could not verify the entities' bona fides. Additions to the list are as follows:

Chinese Customs is requiring traders to declare dutiable royalties on customs forms within 30 days of payment effective May 1, according to a notice from KPMG. The notice called the announcement “one of the important measures taken by China Customs to enhance trade facilitation promoted by [the] World Customs Organization.”

Mexico’s Secretariat of Economy recently posted a new webpage with information on its scheme to validate compliance with Mexican product standards at the time of entry, said the Latin American Confederation of Customs Brokers (CLAA) in an April 8 circular. Under regulations issued in October, imports subject to some Mexican standards will be denied entry into Mexico beginning June 3, 2019, if they are not accompanied by a certificate of compliance previously entered into an automated system by the third-party certifier, the circular said.

The Panama Canal Authority set a new limit for vessels transiting the Neopanamax locks after April 30, it said in an April 1 notice. The maximum authorized draft for vessel after that date "will be 13.41 meters (44.0 feet) Tropical Fresh Water (TFW)," it said. The limit is a result of the present and projected levels of Gatun Lake, it said. "Vessels arriving after April 30, 2019, with drafts over 13.41 meters (44.0 feet) TFW may be allowed to transit, depending on the actual level of Gatun Lake at the time of transit. Otherwise, they will be required to trim or off-load cargo in order to be allowed to transit. Draft adjustments will be announced in 12-inch (30.5 cm) decrements, generally with at least four weeks advanced notice."

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​

In the April 9 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The EU is starting preparations on a list of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods that would take effect after a World Trade Organization arbitrator rules in a dispute over U.S. subsidies for Boeing civil aircraft, a European Commission spokesman said. That arbitrator will tell the EU how much it is allowed to retaliate for the subsidies, the spokesman said, speaking after the U.S. released its own list of proposed retaliatory tariffs on EU goods in a similar WTO dispute on EU subsidies for Airbus (see 1904090057). The EU is open to discussing both disputes with the U.S., he said.

The Department of the Treasury may soon sanction government officials in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hinted while he was being questioned April 9 during a House hearing for the department’s 2020 budget request.

A House Democrat and Republican recently introduced a bill that would modify financing of certain U.S. exports to Cuba, allowing exporters to enter into contracts with certain Cuban agricultural businesses. The bill, introduced March 27 by Reps. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., and Cheri Bustos, D-Ill., would amend a section in the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 to allow U.S. “investment” in Cuba, according to the bill. The bill defines investment as purchasing a share of ownership of an agricultural business, sharing in profits of a business or entering into a contract to “sell goods, services, or technology relating to the agricultural business.” Currently, U.S. agricultural exporters are not allowed to “extend credit” to Cuban buyers, the bill said, causing exports to Cuba to decline and placing U.S. exporters at a “key disadvantage relative to other exporting countries.”

The departments of State and the Treasury, along with the U.S. attorney general, announced sanctions against an Iranian man for contributing to “proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery,” according to a notice to be published in the April 10 Federal Register. State said Reza Ebrahimi is being designated under a 2005 Executive Order titled “Blocking Property of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferators and Their Supporters.” The designation took effect March 22, 2019.