U.S. agricultural exporters to China are choosing to send their own “commitment statements” instead of signing a China-provided customs form that requires the U.S. shipper to guarantee the goods are free of COVID-19 contamination (see 2006230012), the Agriculture Transportation Coalition said June 26. AgTC said exporters have not faced many issues by submitting their own statements. AgTC is providing its members with three examples of commitment statements that can be sent along with shipments. “While China Customs has not confirmed that these statements are acceptable as substitutes for the official form, we are hearing that exporters sending these statements have not encountered any issues so far with their customers clearing cargo in China,” AgTC emailed its members.

A Canadian woman was sentenced to 18 months in prison for illegally exporting gas turbine engine parts from the U.S. to Iran, the Justice Department said June 26. Angelica Preti, who worked as the export operations manager at a Canadian forwarding and customs brokerage services provider, helped to ship U.S.-origin engine parts and valve assemblies to Iran by concealing Iran as the end-user, the agency said. She also filed false electronic export information. During Preti’s time as export manager, the company was involved in 23 shipments exported from the U.S. traced to Iran destinations. DOJ said Preti violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and U.S. sanctions.

Although lawmakers thought eliminating the NAFTA certificate would be helpful, some importers are more comfortable with structure, so there will be a certificate template available on CBP's trade agreements web page “as soon as possible,” Adam Sulewski, USMCA Center project leader at CBP, said during a conference call June 29. He reminded importers, “We can accept those required nine data elements in any form.”

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began an interagency review for a final Bureau of Industry and Security rule that will revise country groups for Ukraine under the Export Administration Regulations. OIRA received the rule June 25.

The Bureau of Industry and Security stressed the importance of increased due diligence measures in a guidance (see 2004280052) on its new export licensing restrictions for military-related exports, saying industry must be careful to avoid shipping goods to entities with any nexus to the Chinese military. The newly issued guidance touches on due diligence best practices and addresses shipments to distributors and universities but does little to address the “unmanageable” compliance burdens industry said the rule will cause (see 2006150031, 2006180035 and 2005050035). BIS also did not grant a request by at least 20 industry groups to delay the rule’s effective date (see 2006150031). The rule took effect June 29.

The U.S. will suspend certain export license exceptions for shipments to Hong Kong and ban exports of U.S.-origin defense goods to the region, the Trump administration said June 29. The administration also plans to further restrict sales of dual-use technologies to Hong Kong to bring those measures in line with restrictions imposed on exports to mainland China. The administration said it is imposing the restrictions because of China’s infringement in Hong Kong’s autonomy (see 2005290047).

The World Trade Organization arbitrator will not announce a decision on the size of retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. over Boeing subsidies until the fall, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources. The U.S. has already imposed tariffs on European food, beverages, aircraft parts and a few other products, because a WTO arbitrator said the European Union had not come into compliance with a decision that said it gave too-large subsidies to Airbus. The decision had been expected in May or June, and EU officials were hoping that if they were granted the right to retaliate, that would convince the U.S. to negotiate a civil aviation settlement that would lift the U.S. tariffs. Instead, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative is talking about adding more products to its 25% tariff list (see 2006240017).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service issued a report June 22 on a series of Saudi tariff increases on agricultural goods. The measures, which took effect June 20, raised duties on livestock, seafood, vegetables, fruit, potato products, dried yeast and more. USDA said the category most impacted is dairy products, which accounted for more than 80% of the 224 food and agricultural products subject to increased tariffs. The report contains a list of all the impacted products with their new tariff rates. The list does not include many items that were on a now-rescinded list of increased tariffs that were scheduled to take effect June 10, the USDA said (see 2006020028).

Nigeria issued a June 24 guidance to clarify which goods are exempt from value-added taxes, KPMG said in a June 25 post. The country also listed the following as not exempt: natural gas, “essential” raw materials for producing pharmaceuticals, renewable energy equipment, and raw materials for producing baby diapers and sanitary towels, the post said. Those goods are, however, subject to a 7% VAT rate.

Morocco recently announced plans to establish a free-trade zone on its northeastern coast to try to reduce illegal imports, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council said June 24. The FTZ, which will be located in the town of Fnideq, near Ceuta, will include several customs warehouses dedicated to “high-demand goods” such as textiles and food products, the report said. The area will benefit goods imported through Morocco’s Tanger Med port and is expected to be completed within a year. The report said food and textiles are among “the most commonly smuggled commodities through Ceuta,” a Spanish autonomous city on the north African coast, near the Morocco border.