A bipartisan bill that would prohibit importation, exportation and interstate trade of bear viscera or products advertised as containing bear viscera was introduced in the House of Representatives on April 10. Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; Rodney Davis, R-Ill.; Ann Kuster, D-N.H.; and Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., co-sponsored H.R. 2264. The Bear Protection Act of 2019 says, "thousands of bears in Asia are cruelly confined in small cages to be milked for their bile, and the wild Asian bear population has declined significantly in recent years, as a result of habitat loss and poaching due to a strong demand for bear viscera used in traditional medicines and cosmetics." It also said that while most American black bear populations are stable or increasing, some bears have been poached for their viscera, and if that commercial trade grew, it could threaten American bear populations.

Automated Export System Electronic Export Information filers should take steps to verify the correct port of export code, the Census Bureau said in a blog post. "First, verify the port of export code that you are reporting in the AES is valid for the mode of transportation of your shipment," the agency said. "Appendix D of the Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements (AESTIR) on the CBP’s website is an important resource, and it provides a full list of export port codes as well as valid modes of transportation for each port." It's also considered a "best practice to contact the carrier of your shipment and verify the port of export information." Fatal errors can be resolved by correcting and retransmitting the export filing, it said.

The Automated Export System Trade Interface Requirements was updated to reflect the State Department's changes involving International Traffic in Arms Regulations for U.S. government transfers (see 1904180024), CBP said in a CSMS message.

The Food Safety Inspection Service will soon begin collecting fees for export certificates it issues through the Public Health Information System Export Component, it said in a notice. Effective June 1, FSIS will collect a $4.01 application fee for applications submitted through the system. FSIS continues to incrementally add countries to the system, which allows exporters to electronically submit, track and manage their export applications, FSIS said. The initial deployment of the PHIS Export Component in June 2018 covered certificates for Afghanistan, Andorra, Bahamas, Bolivia, Burundi, Cape Verde, Cook Islands, Ethiopia, French Guiana, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mozambique, San Marino, Tanzania, Uganda; additional countries added as of May 20 include Angola, Antarctica, Aruba, Bhutan, Botswana, Bouvett Island, Brunei Darussalam, Christmas Island, Comoros, Eritrea, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, French Southern and Antarctic Islands, Greenland, Guernsey, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Isle of Man, Jersey, Lesotho, Liechtenstein and Vietnam.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two Venezuelan officials who it called “corrupt [Nicolas] Maduro insiders,” according to an April 26 press release. OFAC added Jorge Alberto Arreaza Montserrat, Venezuela’s minister of Foreign Affairs, and Carol Bealexis Padilla de Arretureta, a Venezuelan court judge, to the Specially Designated Nationals List.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control is issuing regulations for sanctions surrounding foreign interference in U.S. elections, according to an April 26 notice. The regulations require the director of national intelligence to investigate any information that points to the possibility of foreign interference within 45 days after the conclusion of U.S. elections and recommend “remedial actions” for the U.S. government to take, other than sanctions. The regulations also list provisions for sanctioning those involved in election interference, including blocking any U.S.-related “property and interest.”

President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. will not ratify the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. Trump made the announcement during a speech at a National Rifle Association of America event on April 26. The White House said the treaty "cannot achieve its chief objective of addressing irresponsible arms transfers if these major arms exporters" -- including Russia and China -- "are not subject to it at all." The U.S. signed onto the treaty in 2013, but it was never ratified by the Senate as required. "The United States export controls have long been considered the gold standard for engaging in responsible arms trading and we will continue to use them under our own laws," the White House said.

The European Union plans to temporarily end collection of antidumping and countervailing duties for some products that are subject to steel safeguards, it said in a notice in the April 26 Official Journal. For goods that are subject to AD/CV duties at a level below the 25 percent safeguard on steel recently established by the EU, the EU “considers appropriate that no anti-dumping or countervailing duty should be payable during the relevant period,” the notice said.

China’s progress toward its satellite ambitions show the need for stricter export controls, stronger collaboration on those controls with U.S. allies, and more staffing and funding for U.S. enforcement agencies, panelists said during a meeting on U.S. space-related export controls. The discussion, part of a series of panels hosted by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission on April 25, was billed as a conversation on China’s military-civil fusion. Lorand Laskai, a researcher at the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology, presented a dire outlook for the state of U.S.-China commercial space competition, saying China poses a major threat to U.S. export controls.

UPS, “like most other U.S. multinationals,” advocates for “fair and balanced trade,” CEO David Abney said on a Q1 earnings call April 25. The China-U.S. trade “uncertainty” is “prompting softer industry forecasts” in the Asia-Pacific region, he said. “We certainly encourage leaders of the two countries to find solutions that support increased two-way trade,” and also “assuring that many U.S. companies have access to export to China,” he said. Some UPS customers “have adjusted their supply chain” to mitigate the higher costs of the Section 301 tariffs and retaliatory Chinese duties, and to “adapt to changing trade dynamics,” he said. China economically “is still strong, maybe not as strong as in previous years,” he said. There are “a lot of developments” taking place in two-way trade between the U.S. and China, but also between “China and the rest of the world,” he said. That “sometimes gets lost in the China-U.S. discussions,” he said. “We think it gives us plenty of opportunities to focus and to apply our strategic imperatives” in e-commerce, he said. “We feel good about the economy for the rest of the year.”