The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control amended a general license related to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, according to a March 14 OFAC notice. The license allows transactions with PDV Holding and CITGO Holding, two oil companies and subsidiaries of Petroleos de Venezuela, the U.S.-sanctioned and Venezuela state-owned oil company. The license also allows transactions with PDV Holding’s and CITGO Holding’s subsidiaries. The license changes the expiration date to automatically renew on the first day of each month, the notice said, and is “valid for a period of 18 months from the effective date” of the general license “or the date of any subsequent renewal of (the license), whichever is later.” The license, General License No. 7A, replaces General License No. 7, which was issued Jan. 28.

North Korea is using "increasingly advanced" ship-to-ship transfers to get around global sanctions on the country, the United Nations said in a recent report. Those techniques include "the disguising of vessels through ship identity theft and false Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmissions," the U.N. said. Other methods "include physical disguise of tankers of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the use of small, unregistered vessels, illegal name-changing and other forms of identity fraud, night transfers and the use of additional vessels for transshipment," the report said.

The U.S., the European Union and Canada announced additional Russian sanctions stemming from Russia's actions in Ukraine, according to media reports and a March 15 announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added six people and eight entities to its Specially Designated Nationals List, OFAC said in a notice, while Canada reportedly imposed sanctions on 114 people and 15 entities and the EU targeted eight security service officials and military commanders. Individuals or companies who trade with any of the blocked people or entities may be penalized under U.S. sanctions.

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

Tunisia updated its list of items that are not allowed to be freely traded, according to a March 1 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The purpose of the list is to “control the trade of subsidized products and/or products subject to internal price controls,” the report said. Items on the list include livestock, honey, poultry, vegetables, fruit, grain, “fishery products” and wine, USDA said.

In the March 14 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue and Customs is delaying the effective date of a new policy interpretation that bars customs agents from using their own simplified procedure authorizations for customers that they directly represent. In a memo issued in August 2018, HMRC confirmed that authorization holders for certain simplified procedures -- including inward processing, outward processing relief, temporary admission and private customs warehousing -- must make declarations using these simplified procedures in their own name. “Where an agent wants to use their own simplified authorisation on behalf of a customer, they need to represent that customer indirectly, as the declaration must be made in the name of the person who holds the authorisation,” HMRC had said. The policy had been set to take effect April 1, at which point HMRC would have been set to “consider civil penalty action” for violations. But given that “there are multiple pressures on UK import and export business at this time,” HMRC will now allow until Oct. 1, 2019, for the change to take effect.

The European Union recently issued a guidance document on trade and customs procedures for the EU after the withdrawal of the United Kingdom if there is no deal between the EU and U.K, according to a posting on the Malta Customs website. The guidance includes information on country of origin status, entry requirements, special duty-free classification and special procedures including transit, warehousing and inward and outward processing.

Mexico’s secretary of economy hopes to publish a decree later this week that will increase duties to 15 percent on 186 tariff lines, according to a report in El Universal. The tariff increase will apply to the steel, textile and apparel and footwear sectors, the report said. The steel tariff is being imposed to “avoid injury to domestic industry by worldwide steel overproduction" and the illicit means by which metals are imported into Mexico, it said.

A “major” Hong Kong retail chain is requiring local suppliers to notify the chain 12 weeks before they make price increases, prompting suppliers to allege a breach of competition law, according to a March 13 U.S. Department of Agriculture report. The 12-week advance notice would allow the retailer to obtain “sensitive commercial data” that would likely be beneficial, the report said, because the retailer also buys direct from overseas suppliers and carries its own branded products. “The information requested from suppliers is conducive to the pricing of the retailer’s own products,” USDA said. The report does not name the chain, but calls it a “major supermarket.”