The European Court of Auditors on March 14 issued a report on the European Union’s system for monitoring organic products, including imports. According to the report, EU member state monitoring of organic products and importers is still incomplete, and import supervision could be improved by better cooperation between member states and with the exporting countries. The report also discusses changes to the EU’s equivalence scheme that will set more stringent requirements for countries allowed to export organic products to the EU, as well as the EU’s work improving its monitoring of organic exporters to the EU, particularly in China.

In the March 15 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The government of Canada recently issued the following trade-related notices for March 15 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

South Korea recently notified the World Trade Organization that it is considering a new safety standard for outdoor exercise equipment. The proposed regulations would set safety requirements, test methods and labeling requirement, the notification says. It would be adopted no earlier than June 2019, and would enter into force no earlier than May 2020, according to the notification.

The Philippines has begun an investigation into whether to impose safeguard duties on float glass, according to a report from the World Trade Organization. The safeguards would cover “clear and tinted float glass classified under AHTN Codes 7005.29.90 (clear float glass), 7005.21.90 (tinted float glass), including 7005.10.90 (reflective glass),” the Philippines’ WTO notification said.

China is temporarily eliminating import tariffs on certain oil-meal products in an effort to find an alternative for soybean meal, according to a March 11 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The 2019 tariff change was set for this, along with other selected commodities, at the end of 2018 “to encourage oil meal imports as a substitute,” USDA said, as a result of the sharp drop in soybean imports in 2018 because of the ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute. USDA defines the oil-related products as “plant-based oil meals,” which includes oil residue resulting from extractions of peanut oil, cotton seeds, sunflower seeds, linseeds, rapeseeds, coconuts and “other plant products used in animal feeding.” China has eliminated import tariffs on those products for 2019, starting Jan. 1, the report said.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control published updates to its Specially Designated Nationals List by listing nine people associated with Venezuela, according to two OFAC notices. Both notices, which will be published in the Federal Register, announce sanctions that were issued last month. The first notice lists four people with ties to Venezuela whose sanctions were first announced by OFAC on Feb. 25, and the second notice lists five people associated with Venezuela whose sanctions were announced Feb. 15.

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control amended a general license related to U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, according to a March 14 OFAC notice. The license allows transactions with PDV Holding and CITGO Holding, two oil companies and subsidiaries of Petroleos de Venezuela, the U.S.-sanctioned and Venezuela state-owned oil company. The license also allows transactions with PDV Holding’s and CITGO Holding’s subsidiaries. The license changes the expiration date to automatically renew on the first day of each month, the notice said, and is “valid for a period of 18 months from the effective date” of the general license “or the date of any subsequent renewal of (the license), whichever is later.” The license, General License No. 7A, replaces General License No. 7, which was issued Jan. 28.

North Korea is using "increasingly advanced" ship-to-ship transfers to get around global sanctions on the country, the United Nations said in a recent report. Those techniques include "the disguising of vessels through ship identity theft and false Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmissions," the U.N. said. Other methods "include physical disguise of tankers of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the use of small, unregistered vessels, illegal name-changing and other forms of identity fraud, night transfers and the use of additional vessels for transshipment," the report said.

The U.S., the European Union and Canada announced additional Russian sanctions stemming from Russia's actions in Ukraine, according to media reports and a March 15 announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control added six people and eight entities to its Specially Designated Nationals List, OFAC said in a notice, while Canada reportedly imposed sanctions on 114 people and 15 entities and the EU targeted eight security service officials and military commanders. Individuals or companies who trade with any of the blocked people or entities may be penalized under U.S. sanctions.