The House Appropriations Committee has approved a bill that would increase trade funding at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Bureau of Industry and Security and the International Trade Administration. The committee voted July 14, and now goes to the full House. The bill, which passed the committee only with Democrat votes, and so may not be tolerable to the Republicans who control the Senate, increases funding to BIS by $9.6 million, to $137.6 million. It increases funding to USTR by $1 million, to $55 million, and ups funding to the International Trade Administration by $21.4 million, to $542.4 million. Spending for CBP will be part of a Department of Homeland Security bill, and the amount has not been determined yet.
The U.S. and Japan expanded their organic trade arrangement to include livestock products, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said July 14. The move will reduce costs and streamline processes for U.S. exporters involved in organic livestock supply chains by requiring only one organic certification, the USTR said.
The Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s Secure Trade Lanes Subcommittee Export Working Group issued draft recommendations this week ahead of the COAC’s July 15 meeting. The group recommends that CBP review, compare and eliminate any “duplicative and unnecessary” data elements between the Electronic Export Information and Air, Ocean, and Rail manifest. The group also recommended that the duplicative data elements only be required from the owner of the data “since it is the most timely and accurate source,” and recommended that CBP “provide a data-flow and process-flow map” for government agencies. The map would define where data originates, “such as the EEI, the Manifest, and Departure messages,” the group said.
The United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation corrected 49 entries in its Libya sanctions regime, a July 14 notice said. The U.K. revised identifying information for each of the entries to bring them “into line” with European Union sanctions.
China will sanction Lockheed Martin for its involvement in a $620 million arms sale to Taiwan (see 2007090078), China’s Foreign Ministry said July 14, according to an unofficial translation of the transcript of a press conference. A ministry spokesperson called on the U.S. to stop the sale, which includes the recertification of advanced missiles to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. “In order to safeguard national interests, China decided to take necessary measures to impose sanctions on Lockheed Martin, the main contractor in this arms sales case,” the spokesperson said, adding that further military sales will “damage” U.S.-China relations.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 6-10 in case you missed them.
The Commerce Department published its spring 2020 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security. The agenda includes a new mention of a rule to control “software” for the operation of “automated nucleic acid assemblers and synthesizers” capable of designing and building “functional genetic elements from digital sequence data.” BIS said the software can be used in the production of pathogens and toxins, with the potential for those to make their way into biological weapons if export controls on the software are lacking. The notice of proposed rulemaking, part of BIS’ effort to control emerging and foundational technologies (see 2005190052), will request industry comments about how the controls might affect “legitimate commercial or scientific applications.” BIS said it aims to issue the proposed rule this month.
Visible Supply Chain Management acquired logistics and fulfillment company TriCon, Visible said in a news release last week. The acquisition will bring Visible “new expertise in customs brokerage services and international transportation,” it said.
Guidepost Solutions added Robert Roach, previously chief global compliance officer at New York University, as senior adviser, the company said in a news release. “Roach will help develop compliance, risk management and monitoring programs for both domestic and international organizations,” the company said. “He brings particular expertise in several complex regulatory areas including export control and trade sanctions laws, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other international anti-bribery laws, higher education and research compliance laws, equal opportunity laws, supply chain ethics and international fair labor standards compliance.”
The Canada government issued the following trade-related notices as of July 13 (some may also be given separate headlines):