The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America recently published two export compliance documents to help guide freight forwarders involved in exporting, the group said in a Jan. 11 email to industry. The U.S. Principal Party in Interest export responsibility information sheet provides guidance on the responsibilities of an export customer in an export transaction, and the Shipper’s Letter of Instruction model is intended to help forwarders as they gather required export control information and create a company-specific SLI.

The United Steelworkers, the Steel Manufacturers Association, the American Iron and Steel Institute and two other trade groups wrote to President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 11, telling him that weakening or removing 25% tariffs and quotas on imported steel “before major steel producing countries eliminate their overcapacity and the subsidies and other trade-distorting policies that have fueled the steel crisis will only invite a new surge in imports with devastating effects to domestic steel producers and their workers.” The letter said the Section 232 tariffs allowed idled mills to reopen and laid-off workers to regain their jobs. “Continuation of the tariffs and quotas is essential to ensuring the viability of the domestic steel industry in the face of ... massive and growing excess steel capacity,” they said, pointing to China, Vietnam and Turkey as countries that did not slow down steel production during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced recession.

The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation updated general licenses under its counterterrorism licensing policy, a Jan. 11 notice said. The U.K. revoked three general licenses and revoked and replaced one general license related to “legal aid.” The legal aid license allows certain agencies and bodies to make payments relating to “legal services” to sanctioned people.

The State Department said Jan. 10 it will notify Congress of the agency’s intent to designate Ansarallah -- also known as the Houthis -- as a foreign terrorist organization. The agency also designated three of the group’s leaders -- Abdul Malik al-Houthi, Abd al-Khaliq Badr al-Din al-Houthi and Abdullah Yahya al Hakim -- as specially designated global terrorists. The State Department said it will “put in place” measures to minimize the sanctions’ impact on humanitarian imports into Yemen. The Treasury Department will provide humanitarian-related licenses and guidance for certain transactions and activities conducted by both the U.S. government and nongovernmental organizations, State said.

The State Department designated Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, the agency said Jan. 11. Cuba's designation, which was lifted in 2015 by the Obama administration, will reimpose export restrictions on shipments of certain arms and dual-use items to the island, along with other trade prohibitions and restrictions. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Cuba has “broken” its commitment to stop supporting terrorism as a condition of the 2015 designation removal. The move was met with criticism from at least one Senate Democrat, with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who called it a “blatantly politicized designation.” Leahy added that “domestic terrorism in the United States poses a far greater threat to Americans than Cuba does.”

The Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned seven people and four entities involved in a Russia-linked influence network aimed at influencing U.S. elections, OFAC said Jan. 11. The designations target former Ukrainian government officials Konstantin Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, Andriy Telizhenko and current Ukraine Parliament member Oleksandr Dubinsky. OFAC also sanctioned NabuLeaks and Era-Media TOV, media companies in Ukraine that “push false narratives,” and Petro Zhuravel, who owns designated media disinformation companies Only News and Skeptik TOV. Also designated were Dmytro Kovalchuk and Anton Simonenko, who work closely with Andrii Derkach, a sanctioned Russian agent. Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., released a statement on the move, saying: “The decision to impose sanctions on Andriy Telizhenko for his role in these efforts is welcome and long overdue. By imposing sanctions on Telizhenko, the Trump administration confirms that Senate Republicans’ year-long investigation was based on Russian disinformation. In fact, Chairmen [Ron] Johnson [of Wisconsin, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee] and [Chuck] Grassley [of Iowa, the Finance Committee] cited Mr. Telizhenko 42 times in the letters sent as part of this investigation, and ignored repeated warnings to not give credibility to disinformation.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security loosened its license review policy for exports of certain drones controlled under the Export Administration Regulations (see 2012150011). The move, following a similar announcement by the State Department in July (see 2007270035), will impose a case-by-case license review policy on certain unmanned aerial systems (UAS) as opposed to a review policy of presumption of denial. The change will impact drones controlled for missile technology (MT) reasons and that have a “range and payload capability equal to or greater than 300 kilometers/500 kilograms” and a “maximum true airspeed of less than 800 km/hour,” BIS said in a final rule. The agency said the case-by-case review policy will also apply to MT-controlled items for the design, development, production or use in such drones. The changes take effect Jan. 12.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Jan. 8 (some may also be given separate headlines):

The Commerce Department is adjusting its civil monetary penalties for inflation for 2021, the agency said in a Jan. 11 notice. The inflation adjustments apply only to penalties “with a dollar amount,” not those “written as functions of violations,” Commerce said. The rule is effective Jan. 15, it said.

The Bureau of Industry and Security removed three entities from its Unverified List after completing successful end-use checks, the agency said in a notice released Jan. 8. The notice removes Germany-based DMA Logistics GmbH and Halm Elektronik GmbH and Mexico-based Integrated Production and Test Engineering from the list after BIS verified their bona fides. The changes take effect Jan. 11.