The U.S. designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, marking the first time the U.S. has labeled a government an FTO, according to an April 8 White House notice. The designation is designed to increase financial pressure on Iran and isolate it from military resources, which the notice said are used for “terrorist activities.” The designation will take effect April 15, according to a statement made at a State Department briefing April 8 by Assistant Secretary of State for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales: "With the announcement today, which will take effect a week from now, the legal status of the IRGC will change from an organization to a designated foreign terrorist organization."
The European Union updated its Market Access Database to include “detailed information on rules adopted” by the United Kingdom “that would apply on UK imports from the EU in the event of a no-deal Brexit,” it said in an April 8 press release. “This is a part of the Commission’s efforts to help industry be prepared in case the United Kingdom leaves the European Union without a negotiated deal,” the release said.
The Trump administration is expected to complete a review of the current scope of U.S. export controls on countries subject to arms embargoes, including China, and may make potential regulatory changes by May 10, according to an April 5 blog post from Steptoe & Johnson. The administration’s review stems from a section of the 2018 Export Control Reform Act, which requires a “review relating to countries subject to comprehensive United States arms embargo.” The act specifically requires the Commerce, State and Defense departments, among others, to review export controls on trades with “military end uses and military end users,” according to the post.
The Federal Maritime Commission released a notice of the filing of the following agreements under the Shipping Act of 1984. Interested parties may submit comments on the agreement by email to Secretary@fmc.gov, or by mail to the Secretary, Federal Maritime Commission, Washington, DC 20573, within 12 days of publication in the Federal Register.
The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:
In the April 5 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Recent editions of Mexico's Diario Oficial list trade-related notices as follows:
The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices as of April 5 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):
Three product safety agencies of North America -- the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Health Canada and the Consumer Protection Federal Agency of Mexico -- jointly developed consensus recommendations to improve test methods for ensuring the safety of AC and USB chargers, the CPSC said in an April 4 news release. In trilateral letters to the standards development organizations in the three countries, the agencies recommended new testing to assess potential fire and burn hazards caused by AC and USB chargers for small electronic devices. The effort is the first example of a joint consumer product safety standard recommendation developed among multiple governments that aren’t members of a single administrative region, they said. The goal of the multiyear project is to foster closer alignment of consumer product safety requirements through technical consultations and to seek consensus approaches to consumer product hazards not yet being addressed through formal regulatory or standards work, they said.
A Republican and a Democratic representative are urging the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services to fully fund the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in the wake of the president's 2019 budget request. Reps. Denny Heck, D-Wash., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., were planning to send a letter to the subcommittee about the critical role played by CFIUS, which was reformed in 2018 when Congress passed the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA). FIRRMA expanded the jurisdiction of CFIUS when the committee reviews transactions by foreign entities in the U.S. to determine their effect on national security, according to the Treasury Department. Among many changes, FIRRMA expanded which transactions CFIUS can review and allowed it to undertake lengthier investigations. In their letter, the representatives stressed the importance of granting “dedicated funds” to CFIUS, as the Treasury recommended in its budget request. “Lack of resources would impair how effectively CFIUS can enforce mitigation agreements and its ability to maintain awareness of relevant non-notified transactions,” the letter says.