China’s General Administration of Customs issued an announcement on inspections and supervisors of imports and exports of “dangerous chemicals and their packaging,” according to an unofficial translation of a Dec. 18 notice. The notice includes rules and procedures for customs officials and traders when shipping the hazardous chemicals, including what should be in the declarations, how they should be labeled and packaged, what standards the goods must meet and other rules. The announced rules and procedures go into effect Jan. 10, 2021.

The State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency approved a potential military sale to Kazakhstan worth about $128 million, the DSCA said Dec. 23. The sale includes “King Air B300ER Scorpion Aircraft with Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) Mission Systems” and related equipment. The principal contractor will be Sierra Nevada Corporation.

U.S. exporters of plastic waste should be prepared for disruption Jan. 1, when new multilateral plastic trade restrictions take effect, according to a Dec. 21 post on the Sidley Austin website. Beginning in 2021, new restrictions agreed to by the Basel Convention will be put in place, expanding the type of plastic wastes subject to import and export requirements. The new measures will require traders to “receive consent” from the governments of the importing and exporting countries, including “countries of transit,” for more types of plastic waste, the law firm said. “These amendments will substantially change transboundary shipments of plastic waste and the waste and recycling industries overall,” the firm said, adding that the U.S. will not be able to ship “regulated plastic waste” to other Basel parties. The law firm said the amendment will have “serious effects” on the U.S., which shipped more than 1 billion pounds of plastic waste to nearly 100 countries in 2019.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who said last month he'd be asking for negotiations to begin with Taiwan for a free trade agreement (see 2011190060), is trying to draw attention to the argument. “American workers and manufacturers would have more customers, American consumers would have access to more affordable goods, both economies would grow faster, and America would strengthen its relationship with a key regional ally and increase our economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region” with an FTA with Taiwan, Toomey said in a press release on Dec. 23. Taiwan is the 11th largest trading partner for the U.S., and the bilateral trade supported about 208,000 jobs in the U.S., according to a Commerce Department estimate for 2015, the most recent available. The resolution has 25 Republican co-sponsors.

The United Kingdom and Canada agreed to transitional measures to maintain the flow of goods after the U.K. leaves the European Union Jan. 1, the U.K. said Dec. 22. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding that will maintain tariff-free trade for companies exporting goods that are eligible for preferential treatment under the UK-Canada Trade Continuity Agreement (TCA), which is expected to take effect early in 2021, the U.K. said. The MOU will also maintain tariff rate quotas and rules of origin for products covered under the TCA.

The United Kingdom updated and revised more than 50 open general export licenses to reflect changes to legislation that will take effect when the U.K. officially leaves the European Union Jan. 1, a Dec. 23 press release said. Nine of the licenses were revised as a result of the EU recently updating its dual-use export control list (see 2012160019). The license updates will take effect 11 p.m. U.K. time on Dec. 31.

The United Kingdom’s Export Control Joint Unit on Dec. 24 published a general license authorizing the provision of certain “technical assistance, financial services and funds, and brokering services” for energy-related goods. The general license, which will be available 11 p.m. U.K. time Dec. 31, applies only to energy-related goods not for use in Russia. Activities related to goods for use in Russia require an individual license, the U.K. said.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on Dec. 23 completed a review of a final Bureau of Industry and Security rule that will implement more export controls agreed to at the 2019 Wassenaar Arrangement plenary. BIS published the first set of controls from the plenary in October (see 2010020042) but has since experienced rulemaking delays (see 2012080046). OIRA received the rule Dec. 11 (see 2012140009).

The Bureau of Industry and Security this month released the full set of comments it received on its pre-rule for foundational technologies (see 2008260045 and 2010070012), including hundreds of pages of feedback from U.S. and global semiconductor companies urging the agency to refrain from imposing narrow, unilateral export controls. BIS also received comments from some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, both of which told BIS that its controls could create unmanageable problems for compliance programs.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Dec. 23 (some may also be given separate headlines):