The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls has resumed “limited operations” amid the federal government shutdown, according to the agency’s website. “Services currently available include registration renewals and licensing,” it said. “Certain support functions may remain unavailable during the lapse in government appropriations.”
Export license delays within the Bureau of Industry and Security have caused American technology companies to indefinitely postpone or rescind job offers for foreign students and job seekers. The delays also have complicated trips to the U.S. by foreign companies, which sometimes need a license to visit production facilities on American soil to make decisions about ordering U.S. products.
RANCH MIRAGE, Calif. -- The Federal Maritime Commission is increasing its enforcement action against ocean transportation intermediaries (OTIs) to promote adherence to licensing and tariff regulations, speakers said at the Pacific Coast Council’s Western Cargo Conference last week.
Vietnam has agreed to join the World Trade Organization's Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement (MPIA), the European Commission said. The MPIA, which has been championed by the EU as an alternative to the defunct Appellate Body, now includes 58 WTO members, including China, Japan and the U.K. The European Commission said the MPIA "supports rules-based trade, and each new adhesion increases the stability of multilateral trading relations."
Deutsche Bundesbank, the national central bank of Germany, recently published guidance to help customers and other operators comply with new snapback sanctions on Iran (see 2509290051). The bank stressed that all provisions of funds to sanctioned Iranian people or entities are blocked, and certain payments designed to send certain goods and technologies to Iran are "generally prohibited, such as certain goods, software and technologies that could contribute to Iran's military and technological strengthening," according to an unofficial translation. Other portions of the guidance outline potential exemptions, reporting requirements related to money transfers, and more.
The U.K. announced a host of new Russia-related sanctions this week, targeting major energy firms Rosneft and Lukoil, along with four oil terminals in China, 44 tankers in Russia’s shadow fleet and more. The U.K. also said it’s banning imports of oil products refined in third countries using Russian-origin crude oil.
China is looking to shorten its export license application review times, and potentially issue exemptions, as it approaches the Dec. 1 effective date of its new rules to restrict overseas exports that contain certain levels of Chinese-origin material (see 2510090021), a Commerce Ministry spokesperson said Oct. 16 during a press conference.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he's speaking with his counterparts in the EU, Australia, Canada, India and other parts of Asia about how they can respond to the new Chinese restrictions on rare earths. “We're going to have a fulsome, group response to this,” he said (see 2510150034).
President Donald Trump posted on social media that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a long, "very productive" phone call on Oct. 16. In addition to talking about the ceasefire in Gaza and the first lady's efforts to get Ukrainian children held in Russia or Russia-occupied Ukraine back to their parents in free Ukraine, "we also spent a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over," he wrote.
President Donald Trump, in response to a question about whether he would engage in trade talks with India, said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. That's a big stop. Now I got to get China to do the same thing."