The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Oct. 29 issued an Iran-related general license related to exports of “educational services” and released a new frequently asked question. General License M authorizes U.S. “academic institutions” to export “additional services” to Iranian students who meet certain conditions, including those who have been granted a nonimmigrant visa by the State Department, OFAC said. The license authorizes exports of a range of educational courses -- including material related so humanities, law, business, technology and science -- to students who cannot be in the U.S. due to the COVID-19 pandemic. OFAC said it also authorizes “the exportation of certain software to facilitate the participation of certain Iranian students in certain online educational activities.” The actions are authorized through 12:01 a.m. EDT on Sept. 1, 2021.

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) could potentially transform trade on the continent and bring it into global supply and value chains, but key parts of the deal remain unfinished, and infrastructure investment will be necessary to tap the agreement’s potential, panelists said on an Oct. 28 webinar hosted by law firm Squire Patton.

A pair of U.S. and South African weapon sellers failed to show that the State Department illegally debarred them from exporting goods, a U.S. court said Oct. 26. The court’s decision stemmed from a lawsuit filed by U.S. weapons exporter Robert Thorne and South African gun reseller Dave Sheer and his businesses, who said they were “de facto debarred” from trading weapons by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls despite not being placed on a debarment list.

The World Trade Organization member countries cleared the way for the European Union to impose tariffs on $4 billion worth of U.S. exports because of past tax breaks for the Boeing Company. In the EU's Oct. 26 response to the development, Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis reiterated that the EU would prefer a settlement that drops tariffs on EU goods rather than imposing tariffs on U.S. exports. “The European Commission is preparing the countermeasures, in close consultation with our Member States. As I have made clear all along, our preferred outcome is a negotiated settlement with the U.S. To that end, we continue to engage intensively with our American counterparts, and I am in regular contact with U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer,” he said in the release.

Although Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria's candidate for director-general of the World Trade Organization, had more support from member countries, her rival, Korea's Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, was not withdrawn from the contest on Oct. 28, and there is no consensus on who the next woman to lead the organization will be. Retired trade attorney Terry Stewart blogged on the Washington International Trade Association website about why that might be and what's next. He said that given press reports, it looked like Okonjo-Iweala, who spent most of her career as an economist at the World Bank, had support from more than 100 of the WTO's 164 member countries. Discussions will continue with the U.S. and Korea to see if they will support Okonjo-Iweala, he said. The deadline for the consensus-based decision-making is Nov. 7. If no result is achieved, there can be a vote in Geneva, and the candidate with the most support can win without unanimity.

The Canada government issued the following trade-related notice as of Oct. 28 (some may also be given separate headlines):

A Chicago beverage company agreed to pay more than $19.6 million after it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Justice Department said Oct. 27. Beam Suntory Inc. allegedly tried to bribe an Indian government official to gain approval for a license “to bottle a line of products” that the company wanted to sell in India, Justice said. The company also violated records and book-keeping laws by ignoring “improper activities and practices” by third-parties engaged by Beam in India that led to corruption risks.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service will host a virtual trade event in January aimed at expanding market access for U.S. candy and snack exporters to the Persian Gulf region, an Oct. 28 news release said. USDA said it will arrange business meetings between U.S. exporters and local buyers during the Jan. 12-14, 2021, event, and said FAS staff in the region will offer “insights” into the trade conditions in Gulf nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The application deadline is Nov. 12.

China’s new export control law (see 2010190033), which takes effect Dec. 1, appears to create a Chinese “counterweight” to U.S. export controls over dual-use technologies and includes provisions for “retaliatory action and extraterritorial jurisdiction,” the Congressional Research Service said in an Oct. 26 report. China may use the new law to impose controls against specific U.S. companies, on technologies the U.S. controls or on items in which China has “niche advantages or control over certain elements of global technology supply chains.” While the new law presents risks for the U.S., it could also backfire by driving the U.S. to work closer with partners on multilateral controls and licensing practices to better counter China, the CRS said. The report summarizes the law and its definitions and includes a catalog of newly controlled technologies released by China in August.

The Congressional Research Service issued a report Oct. 26 on U.S. semiconductor policy and global competition, including an analysis of the semiconductor supply chain, the current industry landscape and semiconductor-related legislation. Congress has introduced multiple bills to provide federal funding and incentives for the semiconductor industry (see 2007240010), but questions remain about how large federal tax benefits should be, how much the federal government should invest in research and development, and how long the funding and incentives should be sustained, the CRS said. The U.S. should also consider how partners and adversaries would respond to moves such as federal investment in R&D-related activities such as workforce training or federal spending to “ensure a domestic production source for some or all national security applications,” and whether the efforts should be made in collaboration with other “like-minded” countries “to incentivize R&D and supply chains and to counter China’s state-led policies.”