The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement contains the most complex automotive rules of origin of any trade deal, significantly raising rule requirements for the industry and steeply increasing costs for compliance programs, several experts said at an April 4 Center for Strategic and International Studies panel. Several industry leaders said the USMCA will force many companies in the automotive supply chain to make substantial changes. “The USMCA rule of origin is now by far the most complex, stringent requirement that exists in any free trade agreement in the world,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council. “It really will force manufacturers to think more about the rule of origin and their sourcing decisions than they’ve ever done before.”

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two oil companies operating in the Venezuelan oil sector and identified 34 ships associated with Petróleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), according to an April 5 press release. OFAC identified the two shipping companies as Liberia-based Ballito Bay Shipping Incorporated and Greece-based ProPer In Management Incorporated, and said one or both transported oil from Venezuela to Cuba during February and March using an oil tanker called Despina Andrianna. OFAC also named the 34 ships that are “blocked property” of PdVSA, a Venezuela state-run oil company sanctioned by the U.S.

The Confederation of Mexican Customs Broker Associations (CAAAREM) recently issued a circular detailing recent changes to the Mexican customs regulations. The Mexican Tax Administration Service published the notice, the fifth such set of changes to the Mexican Foreign Trade Regulations, on March 30. The CAAAREM circular was posted by Mexican law firm Consorcio Juridico Aduanero.

The Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence is requesting a nearly $25 million budget increase from the previous year, partly to help with staffing concerns, according to Treasury’s annual budget report. OTFI lists its “increasing role” in the Trump administration as justification for the increased budget. The agency is requesting about $165 million.

In the April 3 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom will give U.S. companies an additional 60 days to submit documentation for value-added tax (VAT) refund claims covering 2017-18 in light of disruptions caused by the recent U.S. federal government shutdown, the U.K.’s HM Revenue & Customs said in an updated guidance document. As a result of the partial shutdown, U.S. companies may not have been able to obtain a valid certificate of status proving their U.S. business registration, HMRC said. The revised deadline for the certificates for 2017-18 refund claims is now May 30. The deadline for claimants from all other countries remains March 31, 2019. “In all cases, all other documentary evidence required to process the 2017 to 2018 claims must have been submitted by 31 December 2018,” HMRC said. Under the Overseas Refund Scheme, companies not based in the U.K. or European Union may “reclaim VAT charged on imports into the UK or purchases of goods and services used in the UK for business purposes.”

Japan and Turkey are hoping to agree on a trade deal by June as the two sides enter their latest round of negotiations, according to a notice from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and a report by Nikkei Asian Review. The latest round of negotiations -- announced on April 1 by Japan -- are being held April 2-5 in Ankara.

A Micronesian government official pleaded guilty to money laundering charges that violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Department of Justice said April 3. Master Halbert, an official in Micronesia’s Department of Transportation, Communications and Infrastructure, received bribes from a Hawaii-based engineering and consulting company in exchange for contracts with the Micronesian government, the department said.

The Census Bureau visited 13 companies in 2018 as part of its Automated Export System compliance review program, the agency said in an April 3 blog post. The average AES compliance rates prior to the visits were 85 percent, it said. Such visits are meant to "help noncompliant companies understand the export reporting requirements" and avoid government enforcement actions, Census said. Noncompliance includes "filing incorrect Schedule B or Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) numbers, filing with foreign currency, filing with incorrect units of measure, or failing to verify information with a commodity analyst," it said.

CBP's reallocation of 750 officers from Ports of Entry to Border Patrol is affecting exports from the U.S., according to an April 4 call with CBP officials. According to an emailed write-up of the call from the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America, this "deployment will affect outbound as well, as there is far fewer staff overall." The NCBFAA said that "CBP acknowledged that all southwest cargo ports are being impacted" and "the option is available to direct to other ports, but all will see an expected wait time increase."