Amid swirling reports that China is considering exemptions from tariffs on some critical U.S. goods, an industry expert said that these moves should not be read as a broader shift in the trade war between the two countries.
The Council of the European Union on April 25 extended its sanctions on Myanmar for one year, pushing them to April 30, 2026. The restrictions currently apply to 106 individuals and 22 entries and include an asset freeze, arms embargo and restriction on the export of dual-use goods and equipment for monitoring communication that may be used for internal repression.
The Treasury Department is exploring several ways to improve its screening of inbound and outbound investment, Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said April 24.
A new executive order aimed at reducing regulatory restrictions around weapons sales could speed up exports to allies and remove other trade barriers, law firms said, although key questions remain about how U.S. agencies will implement it.
Foreign countries' retaliatory tariffs against the Trump administration’s new global tariffs could cut U.S. exports of goods covered by the World Trade Organization’s Information Technology Agreement by at least $56 billion a year, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said April 23.
A former U.S. Army intelligence analyst was sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiring to "obtain and disclose national defense information," illegally exporting data related to defense articles to China, and conspiring to illegally export defense articles and bribery, DOJ announced. The analyst, Korbein Schultz, pleaded guilty last year to sending "sensitive, non-public U.S. military information, to an individual he believed was affiliated with the Chinese government," DOJ said.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. has cleared a planned merger between North Carolina-based Piedmont Lithium Inc. and Canada-based Sayona Mining Ltd., Piedmont announced April 23. The combination also has received approval under the Investment Canada Act, as well as the U.S. antitrust law, the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, Piedmont said. Upon completion of the transaction, which still requires shareholder approval, the merged business will be named Elevra Lithium Ltd.
The State Department praised Paraguay April 24 for designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization and expanding 2019 terrorist designations for the armed wings of Hamas and Hezbollah to cover the entirety of those organizations. “The important steps Paraguay has taken will help cut off the ability of the Iranian regime and its proxies to plot terrorist attacks and raise money for its malignant and destabilizing activity, including in the Tri-Border Area Paraguay shares with Argentina and Brazil,” the department said.
The U.K. extended the general sanctions license permitting insolvency-related payments and activities involving GTLK Europe and GTLK Capital until July 31, 2030. The license specifically permits any individual or corporation to "make, receive or process any payments, or take any other action, in connection with any Insolvency Proceedings, whether prior to or after the commencement of such proceedings." The license had been slated to expire July 31, 2025.
The U.K. dropped 12 entities from its Syria sanctions regime on April 24, including major government ministries and media outlets, according to a notice from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. Those entities are the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Defence, General Intelligence Directorate, Air Force Intelligence Agency, Political Security Directorate, Syrian National Security Bureau, Military Intelligence Directorate, Army Supply Bureau, General Organisation of Radio and TV, Al Watan, Cham Press TV and Sama TV.