President Joe Biden recently ordered a review of all U.S. and multilateral financial and economic sanctions to see if they are hindering the COVID-19 pandemic response. The Jan. 21 executive order calls on the secretaries of the State, Treasury and Commerce departments, with input from the Department of Health and Human Services secretary and the U.S. Agency for International Development administrator, to conduct the review and provide recommendations on the state of these sanctions to the national security adviser and COVID-19 response coordinator. This sanctions-review provision is part of a broader order on reestablishing American leadership in the global pandemic response and reorienting the U.S.'s national security priorities to combat COVID-19.

The Joe Biden administration has begun a comprehensive review of U.S. trade policies involving China, including several of the restrictions imposed by the Trump administration during its final months, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. Among those restrictions is the export controls placed on goods destined for Huawei (see 2012210044).

The Department of Defense is revising its process for identifying critical technologies that should be subject to export controls after the Government Accountability Office said its current process is too broad and lacks interagency coordination. Although the DOD is tasked with sharing a list of critical technologies with agencies that oversee export controls -- including the State, Commerce and Treasury departments -- officials at all three agencies said they sometimes don’t receive the list. None of the agencies received the list in 2019, the GAO said, even though it could have helped them better protect against trade theft and illegal exports.

The World Customs Organization announced additional changes to the upcoming 2022 edition of the Harmonized System that were recently agreed upon as corrections and amendments to the initial text announced in January 2020 (see 2001290033). The additional changes include corrections throughout the classification scheme, as well as amendments to chapters 21, 24, 26, 29, 67, 84, 88 and 97. While the latest version of the HS, released every five years, takes effect Jan. 1, 2022, these additional amendments will not be binding until Jan. 1, 2023, though parties to the HS are “encouraged” to apply them beginning in 2022, the WCO said.

Ghana recently postponed a planned 20% increase in registration fees and customs charges for certain imported goods and services, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Jan. 21. Fee increases that were scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 were delayed for at least three months amid criticism from importers, shippers and freight forwarders that the increased charges would lead to higher prices and “damage to the economy,” the report said. The fees -- which would affect imports including office equipment, plastic goods, auto parts, telecommunication equipment, pharmaceutical products and furniture -- originally were scheduled to take effect last year but were pushed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HKTDC said. Ghana will reassess the situation and the fees at the end of this year’s first quarter.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Jan. 22 (some may also be given separate headlines):

The Philippines recently increased import duties on certain vehicles to protect the domestic vehicle manufacturing industry, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Jan. 22. The country will impose an additional safeguard duty on certain passenger cars and “light commercial” vehicles beginning Jan. 20 for a period of at least 200 days, the report said. An auto trade group applauded the move, but importers and carmakers said the increased duty will reduce sales and increase vehicle prices, the HKTDC said. The safeguard duty equates to $1,457 in U.S. dollars per imported passenger car and $2,287 for every imported light commercial vehicle.

China temporarily suspended poultry imports from Senegal due to an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu in that country, a Jan. 19 notice said, according to an unofficial translation. All illegal imports of poultry or poultry products from Senegal will be returned or destroyed, China said.

The U.S. and the United Kingdom agreed to formally recognize each other's authorized economic operator (AEO) programs, CBP said in a Jan. 21 news release. “This arrangement will take U.S.-UK cooperation on supply chain security to the next level,” said William Ferrara, executive assistant commissioner of the CBP Office of Field Operations. “Mutual recognition of the U.S. and UK authorized economic operator programs will mitigate risks, improve information sharing, and eliminate red tape for our partners in the trade community.” The agreement means CBP “will accept the validation of UK Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) and grant them approval status in the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT),” it said. “Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will likewise accept the validation of CTPAT members and grant them approval status as AEOs.”

The United Nations Security Council removed Iraqi nationals Zuhair Talib Abd al-Sattar al-Naqib and Amir Rashid Muhammad al-Ubaidi from its sanctions list, a Jan. 18 news release said. Both were designated in 2003.