Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, both R-Fla., urged the Trump administration last week to continue using “maximum pressure,” including sanctions, to pressure Venezuela to release "wrongfully imprisoned" Americans.

Three Senate Democrats urged the Trump administration July 3 to restart regular updates of sanctions and export controls against Chinese and other entities helping Russia’s war machine.

The Automed Export System’s Response Message 15A, which alerts filers if the reported Foreign Trade Zone Indicator isn’t formatted correctly, is being upgraded from a “compliance” message to a fatal error beginning July 14, CBP said in a cargo systems message last week. The error message won't allow export filers to move forward if the FTZ Indicator “does not have the required format of 3 numeric characters which is a valid zone followed by 6 alphanumeric characters.”

The U.K. on July 3 added three financial sanctions FAQs covering what constitutes an "economic resource" and when licenses are required from the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation if licenses have been issued by a "Crown Dependency or Overseas Territory."

The U.S. and its allies should consider using additional sanctions to force Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons program, although more sanctions also risk pushing Iran to cooperate even more closely with China, Russia and North Korea, a former Pentagon official said last week.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week sanctioned a network of people, entities and ships for transporting and buying billions of dollars’ worth of Iranian oil, some of which has benefited Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force. OFAC said some of companies are run by Iraqi businessman Salim Ahmed Said, who the agency said smuggles Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil.

The U.S. last week sanctioned seven senior officials and one entity linked to the Hezbollah-controlled and sanctioned financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan. The Office of Foreign Assets Control said the officials served in senior management roles for Al-Qard Al-Hassan and have helped it evade U.S. sanctions, allowing Hezbollah to access the "formal financial system."

The U.S. should take several steps to reduce red tape and streamline arms sales and technology transfers to close trading partners, including more frequently reviewing the jurisdiction of export-controlled items and combining reviews of weapons requests from allies, researchers said in a new report.

The State Department is revising the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to align with recent U.N. Security Council decisions involving the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Central African Republic, South Sudan and Sudan. The agency’s final rule, effective July 7, also updates the list of NATO members and major non-NATO allies and makes other corrections and clarifications to the ITAR.

The Bureau of Industry and Security last week rescinded China-related export restrictions on multiple electronic design automation companies and a gas and oil pipeline company, a move that came less than a month after Washington and Beijing reached an agreement to rein in their respective export curbs.