The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Sept. 25:
The Indian government is committed to ratifying the World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement, the Commerce Department said in a memo (here) following the U.S.-India Strategic and Commercial Dialogue on Sept. 22 in Washington. India blocked the initial implementation steps for the TFA in 2014 over a subsidy disagreement with the U.S. (see 1411130027). Leaders of the Ways and Means and Finance Committees expressed skepticism over India’s willingness to move forward with the pact in a letter sent to administration officials in the days leading up to the summit (see 1509210016). The Commerce memo also said the U.S. and India plan to ramp up agriculture cooperation through a number of different forums. The strategic dialogue focuses on a range of non-trade-related topics, including infrastructure and transportation.
The Bureau of Industry and Security handed down a set of penalties for two Dubai-based traders and three companies operated by the individuals over violations of the Export Administration Regulations (here). The two individuals and their companies violated the EAR by conspiring to export and reexport controlled telecommunications equipment to Syria without the proper U.S. authorization and through falsified documents, said BIS. The agency placed the following five entities on the Denied Persons List (DPL) for varying lengths of time:
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Sept. 21:
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security published a rule (here) to correct typographical errors in a June final rule on implementation of a set of Australia Group decisions. The June rule amended the Commerce Control List to combine entries for human and zoonotic pathogens and toxins (see 1506150027). The typographical errors are in a note to Export Control Classification Number 1C351.a, which BIS says includes certain viruses.
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security extended until March 16, 2016 a temporary denial of export privileges for Flider Electronics, Pavel Semenovich Flider and Gennadiy Semenovich Flider (here). San Francisco-based Flider Electronics also does business as Trident International. BIS placed Flider and its owners on the Denied Persons List in recent days (see 1509150015).
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security added the following company and individuals to the Denied Persons List, BIS said in an emailed Sept. 14 statement:
The Commerce Department is increasing the knit apparel tariff preference level under the Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) Act for fiscal year 2015 (here). The agency says imports from Haiti under the knit apparel TPL rose above 52 million square meter equivalents (SMEs) for the period Oct. 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015, so the TPL for the period is automatically being increased to 200 million SMEs. The TPL for the period Oct. 1, 2015 through Sept. 30, 2016 will remain at 70 million SMEs until FY 2016 imports reach or exceed 52 million SMEs, said Commerce.
The Foreign Trade Zones Board issued the following notices for Sept. 14:
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is asking for comments on whether to extend “foreign policy-based” controls in the Export Administration Regulations for calendar year 2016 (here). BIS has routinely extended these controls each January (see 14090311). The foreign policy controls in EAR parts 742 (Commerce Control List Based Controls), 744 (End-User and End-Use Based Controls) and 746 (Embargoes and Other Special Controls) cover products ranging from torture instruments to cameras used by military end-users. BIS is asking for comments in the following areas: