The Bureau of Industry and Security is temporarily denying export privileges for X-TREME Motors, XTREME Outdoors, Tyson Preece, Corey Justin Preece and Toby Green for six months over violations of the Export Administration Regulations involving unauthorized exports to Russia, China and other countries. The individuals and companies, all located in Utah, are being placed on the Denied Persons List. BIS alleges those individuals and companies fabricated customs declarations to ship rifle scopes and other controlled items. BIS detained over 50 shipments that were falsely identified by the companies. The companies labeled the shipments as containing all-terrain vehicle parts. The denial order is eligible for renewal.
The geographical indication (GI) provisions in the European Union-Canada free trade agreement are likely to restrict Canadian market access for American cheeses, said three U.S. dairy groups in a Sept. 29 statement. Canada and the EU published the text of the agreement on Sept. 26 (here). In contrast to Canadian intellectual property laws, the pact gives “automatic protection” for EU producers to exclusively use “asiago,” “feta,” “fontina,” “gorgonzola” and “munster,” said the statement. “The automatic protection for five cheese names that are generic in Canada, the U.S. and globally is another example of the EU’s overreach on geographical indications,” said Clay Hough, senior group vice president of the International Dairy Foods Association. “The EU’s GI strategy is incompatible with the fundamental goal of a trade negotiation, which is to remove trade barriers — not add them — and allow for greater competition.” U.S. industry leaders and lawmakers have repeatedly criticized the EU for its GI policies, calling for the Obama administration to address the issue in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations (see 14061128).
The controls imposed by the Obama administration on U.S. defense and dual-use exports to Russia are most likely to impact the civilian aerospace industry, but tangible impacts won’t be felt until next year, said Daniel Russell, president of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, during a Sept. 25 National Foreign Trade Council event. The April export control sanctions affect only new licenses, so the existing licenses are still able to run their course (see 14042812). The controls target high-tech item sales to sanctioned companies and “tighten” restrictions on sales that could be provided to the Russian military, said Russell. “Russia is a huge market for civilian aircraft,” he said. “Boeing … [United Technology Corporation] … all the usual suspects … are the ones who are most heavily vested there and certainly the export controls will have an impact on that, but I think on the civilian side.”
The U.S. Census Bureau on Sept. 25 released trouble-shooting techniques to resolve frequent Fatal Error notification issues in the Automated Export System. Fatal Errors occur when a shipment is rejected in AES.
India will not level antidumping duties on U.S. photovoltaic cells, as recommended in previous months by the country’s Ministry of Commerce, Indian media reported on Sept. 10. A wing of the agency had prescribed in May AD duties of up to 48 cents per watt on imports of U.S. solar cells from the U.S., China, Taiwan and Malaysia (see 14052816). The Indian domestic solar industry was largely established through the National Solar Mission, but the country is currently unable to meet its own needs for solar industry equipment, said Power Minister Piyush Goyal at a Sept. 10 event, the media reported. Following the Commerce recommendation, the Finance Ministry, leading an interagency review body, was required to act in a three-month window. The Indian government allowed that window to lapse, said a cabinet official, according to the reports.
The Canadian Border Services Agency in recent days published the findings of a sugar import reinvestigation and identified only two exporters as cooperative, both of which are U.S. companies. Effective Sept. 4, Baldwin Richardson Foods Company and the Michigan Sugar Company established agreed "normal export values" with the CBSA after cooperating with the reinvestigation. The reinvestigation looked into dumping from exporters in the U.S., Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, as well as subsidized refined sugar from the European Union.
The Export-Import Bank should adopt stricter methods for monitoring late and missing documentation for dual-use transactions, the Government Accountability Office said in an Aug. 29 report, arguing that the credit agency on occasion lacked the wherewithal to determine if the transactions posed risks. GAO cited three transactions where the credit agency's efforts to obtain such documentation was sluggish and unrecorded. The transactions took place in 2012, and involved French satellite company Eutelsat, as well as the Mexican and Cameroon governments. The credit agency said it did not finance any dual-use transactions in 2013, according to the GAO report.
Nearly 20 U.S. agricultural organizations in recent days urged U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and European Union consumer policy official Tonio Borg to pressure EU approval for U.S. biotechnology product exports. There are currently nine food and feed products that the European Food Safety Authority reviewed positively, but no new authorizations have been issued since November 2013, said the organizations in an Aug. 20 letter to Borg. The failure to authorize the products at EU meetings in September will lead to feed shortages and price increases, said the letter, adding that “timely regulatory decisions on new biotechnology applications” are mandated through World Trade Organization obligations. U.S. trade officials and advocates have long pressed for more biotech access to the European market (see 13071622). The food and feed organizations in another Aug. 20 letter to Froman said the regulatory slog violates WTO trade rules. If the EU does not act during its September meeting, the organizations urged Froman “to explore all options, including initiating a process to convene a WTO compliance panel,” said the letter. "Any further delay in approval will give rise to the realistic concern that the European Union has reinstituted a de facto moratorium on new agricultural biotechnologies.”
The World Trade Organization ruled against several Argentine trade-restrictive import measures on Aug. 22, in a move that U.S. and other officials described as a victory in preserving fundamental trade liberalization principles outlined in Article 11 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (here). That article aims to prohibit and restrict trade-inhibiting import measures, such as quotas and licenses. The panel report determined Argentina violated WTO rules by demanding foreign companies export a certain amount of goods from the Argentina in order to get import authorization, limiting the volume of U.S. exports to the country and reducing sales prices of U.S. exports, requiring importers to invest in production facilities, and imposing local content requirement, among other measures, said a U.S. Trade Representative lawyer during an Aug. 22 teleconference with reporters.
The Census Bureau changed two Port of Export names on Aug. 21. The Otay Mesa, Calif. port will now be named San Ysidro, Calif. (Port of Export Code 2504). The Otay Mesa Station, Calif. port will now be named Otay Mesa, Calif. (Port of Export Code 2506). For more information, contact the Census’s AES Branch at askaes@census.gov, www.census.gov/trade, or blogs.census.gov/globalreach.