Kelly Ann Shaw, a senior White House trade and economics official during the first Trump administration, has joined Akin Gump's lobbying and public policy practice. The law firm said she was a "key architect" of the administration's trade policies and a negotiator for the U.S.-China phase one trade deal.

The State Department approved possible military sales -- to Norway, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia -- the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said last week.

Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., reintroduced a bill April 29 that would state it's no longer U.S. policy that the Missile Technology Control Regime's presumption of denial applies to NATO, major non-NATO allies and Five Eyes countries. The measure, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is designed to ensure the MTCR does not impede joint development of advanced missile technology under Pillar II of the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS) security partnership. The bill was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which approved the measure in the last Congress (see 2407100058).

Both the Japanese government and Japanese reporters' coverage of Japan's more than two-hour talk with the U.S. trade representative, commerce secretary and treasury secretary describe politicians who are not in a hurry to settle to avoid 24% tariffs under the reciprocal tariff plan that is scheduled to take effect in early July.

President Donald Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” May 4 that he “would be willing” to provide China’s ByteDance more time to divest TikTok if it can’t find a buyer by the June 19 deadline. Trump already has given ByteDance two 75-day extensions to comply with a 2024 law that requires the company to sell TikTok or face a U.S. ban on the popular social media application (see 2504040062).

The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week designated the Myanmar militia group Karen National Army as a transnational criminal organization for its role in supporting multiple cyber-scam syndicates targeting U.S. citizens. OFAC also sanctioned the group’s leader, Saw Chit Thu, and his two sons, Saw Htoo Eh Moo and Saw Chit Chit.

Companies must spend more resources on export compliance, and governments need to do a better job of coordinating and updating multilateral export control lists, in order to prevent Russia, Iran and other “rogue actors” from buying as many sensitive dual-use goods, researchers said this week.

John Johnson, most recently the special agent in charge of the Bureau of Industry and Security's Miami field office, has retired from the agency, he announced last week on LinkedIn. Johnson led the Miami field office from May 2023 and had been with BIS since 2007.

The U.K. has finished gathering public input from industry about the Trump administration’s recent tariff measures (see 2504030057) and is working to “rapidly” analyze the responses “while keeping all options on the table,” the country’s Department for Business and Trade said May 2. It also said possible trade negotiations with the U.S. to remove the tariffs “continue at pace and remain our focus.” The U.K. earlier this year published a list of over 8,000 goods imported from the U.S. that possibly could be hit with retaliatory tariffs.

EU and Lithuanian authorities last month raided a logistics business suspected of illegally exporting items to Russia and Belarus, seizing more than $1.7 million worth of goods from the company. The items allegedly were made in EU countries before the company rerouted them through Central Asian countries to circumvent EU sanctions, the European Anti-Fraud Office and the Lithuanian Customs Criminal Service said.