Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, led a bipartisan letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer arguing that he should not push for returning treatment of foreign-trade zones to the NAFTA approach, and instead, should allow goods manufactured in those zones to receive tariff benefits if they meet USMCA rules of origin. This issue has been hanging up a technical fixes bill since the summer (see 2007200021).

President-elect Joe Biden won't remove Section 301 tariffs until he makes a full review of the phase 1 agreement and consults with Japan, South Korea and Europe “so we can develop a coherent strategy,” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman reported Dec. 2. Biden said free-market countries need more leverage to “actually produce progress on China’s abusive practices,” such as illegal subsidies to corporations, forced tech transfers and stealing intellectual property.

The United Nations Security Council removed sanctions from one person and 11 entities designated under its Iraq sanctions regime, it said Dec. 1. The move removes designations from Muhammad Mahdi Al-Salih and from a range of manufacturing, textile and industrial companies and organizations.

The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation amended four entries under its Sudan sanctions, a Dec. 1 notice said. The revision updates identifying information for a former Sudanese government official and current military and militant leaders.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Lucio Rodriguez Serrano as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker for working on behalf of Mexican drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero, OFAC said Dec. 2. OFAC said Serrano and Quintero are “lifelong friends” and Serrano has helped Quintero evade capture from U.S. authorities. Quintero is on the FBI’s most-wanted list. Timothy Shea, acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said arresting Quintero is a “top priority” for the DEA. “Today’s action by Treasury is an important step in our joint mission to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy violent drug trafficking organizations and in bringing Caro Quintero to justice,” Shea said. OFAC also deleted six Mexico and Colombia-related sanctions entries and revised one Mexico-related entry.

While the United Kingdom will continue many of the same sanctions regimes imposed by the European Union, companies should not assume the two sets of sanctions regulations will be “identical” after Brexit, the U.K.’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. In a Dec. 1 blog post, OFSI said some of its regulations have revised wording and urged businesses to review U.K. sanctions to make sure their “activities are still compliant.”

The Bureau of Industry and Security should apply the “minimal” necessary level of export controls on foundational technologies to prevent impacts on U.S. academic research, universities said in comments to the agency. BIS also should reexamine which technologies it defines as “emerging” because some are already commercially widespread, a British aerospace company said.

The National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America hired Chris Gillis, previously a reporter with American Shipper, as communications director, the NCBFAA said in a news release.

The Singapore Customs TradeNet will undergo system maintenance Dec. 13, 4 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time, a Dec. 1 notice said. The agency advised users to avoid submitting applications during this time. This is in addition to the usual 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Sunday maintenance.

China's General Administration of Customs issued a list of goods subject to zero tariffs when imported into the Hainan Free Trade Port, it announced Nov. 30, according to an unofficial translation. The tariff policy, which took effect Dec. 1 and will be in place until 2025, will exempt import duties, value-added import taxes and consumption taxes for certain “raw and auxiliary materials,” China Daily, a state-run news outlet, reported Dec. 1. The exemptions will apply to products “consumed in the importing company's own production process, for import-process-export production activities or for import-service-export work in the process of trade in services by enterprises registered as independent legal entities” in the Hainan Free Trade Port, the report said.