Electronic Export Information requirements for Puerto Rico treat the territory like a foreign country, unnecessarily burden U.S. shippers and go against the wishes of the Puerto Rican people and government, said Mike Mullen, executive director of the Express Association of America. Speaking on a Jan. 28 call hosted by a Commerce Department advisory committee, Mullen said the EAA spoke with a member of President Joe Biden's transition team in early January about eliminating the filing requirements.

More foreign investors are opting to submit a filing with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. out of an abundance of caution, even when there is no mandatory filing requirement, George Grammas, a trade lawyer with Squire Patton, said. Grammas said “sophisticated” investors are especially likely to file before the investment is complete, particularly as CFIUS continues a trend of reviewing years-old investments.

Pakistan recently issued a directive to require online payments for customs duties that exceed about $6,200, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Jan. 27. Importers must make the payment through one of Pakistan’s bank‑sanctioned payment systems via e‑payments and “any other electronic payment method” approved by the country’s state bank. HKTDC said the move is aimed at further digitizing customs payments to meet the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organization created to combat money laundering.

The European Commission is investigating whether a food and snack producer violated competition rules by hindering “trade flows” in the European Union, a Jan. 28 news release said. Mondelez, one of the EU’s largest producers of chocolate, biscuits and coffee, may be restricting the “parallel trade” of its goods between member states through agreements and other “unilateral practices,” the EC said. Restrictions on parallel trade can “lead to the isolation of a national market whereby the manufacturer or supplier can charge higher prices to the detriment of consumers,” it said.

The Philippines customs authority this month issued a compendium of customs and trade penalties and obligations, consolidating many of the country’s trade rules into a “comprehensive resource,” the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Jan. 28. The resource details penalties for importers, exporters and other trade compliance stakeholders, the HKTDC said, and further aligns the Philippines with its World Trade Organization obligations.

China temporarily suspended poultry imports from Lithuania due to an outbreak of the H5N8 bird flu in that country, a Jan. 25 notice said, according to an unofficial translation. All illegal imports of poultry or poultry products from Lithuania will be returned or destroyed, China said.

The U.S. placed a temporary freeze on certain pending arms sales made under the State Department’s Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales programs, according to a Jan. 27 Reuters report. The review includes a freeze on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, according to The Wall Street Journal, which added that the new administration is also “scrutinizing” recent purchases made by the United Arab Emirates. The State Department didn’t comment.

The Bureau of Industry and Security issued orders temporarily denying export privileges for three people involved in illegal exports. Irma Lizette Trevizo was convicted April 30, 2019, of conspiring to smuggle firearms and ammunition from the U.S. to Mexico, BIS said in a Jan. 25 order. Trevizo was sentenced to two years in prison, two years of supervised release and a $100 fine. BIS denied Trevizo’s export privileges for 10 years from the date of her conviction.

Trade advocates and a trade scholar discussed how effective U.S.-Asia sectoral agreements could be, as well as the possible downsides of such agreements, during an Asia Society Policy Institute webinar Jan. 26. The Japan mini-deal was not exactly a sectoral deal because it lowered tariffs on a variety of products across different categories, but the agreement's digital trade plank is one that negotiators could consider as a template for a digital trade accord across more Asian countries.

Economics Professor Mary Lovely, who studies multinationals' operations in China, told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that the trade war didn't make the U.S. less reliant on China, and that export controls designed to isolate China have not been effective, either. She noted that China is still the top exporter to the U.S., and their goods make up 17% of U.S. imports. The Commission met online Jan. 28.