Malawi formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies on May 28, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 100. The WTO needs 11 more countries to accept to get to two-thirds of the membership, the threshold for the agreement to take effect.

The World Trade Organization released the agenda for the June 5 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body. The meeting is held to exclusively consider Canada's request for a dispute panel in its case against Chinese import duties on certain agricultural and fishery products from Canada.

The EU and the United Arab Emirates formally launched negotiations on a free trade agreement, the European Commission announced this week. Their first meeting, set to begin as early as next month, will center on "reducing tariffs on goods and facilitating services, digital trade and investment flows," the commission said. The negotiations also will look into ways to boost trade in strategic sectors. The UAE is the EU's 19th-largest trading partner in goods.

The EU on May 28 imposed antidumping duties ranging from 13% to 62% on tinplate from China, the Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security announced. Provisional duties had been imposed Jan. 14 after the EU said Chinese tinplate imports were harming the domestic industry.

The Bureau of Industry and Security will decommission the legacy self-management software for SNAP-R, the agency’s export application submission system, on June 30, BIS said in a notice on the homepage of its website. The agency is asking users to "please migrate your account(s) to the updated SNAP-R application before then to ensure continued access to the SNAP-R system. Each individual is required to migrate their account." BIS also published step-by-step migration instructions and said questions should be directed to SNAPR@bis.doc.gov.

The U.K. on May 28 corrected seven entries on its Russia sanctions regime, including one person and six entities. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation corrected the listing for Igor Bystrov, deputy director of MT-Systems and owner of Semirtek DOO, and six Russian and Chinese defense companies. The companies are Atoma LLC, MT-Systems, Pioneer Trade, Shanghai New Chess Co., Shanghai New Chess International Logistics Co. and LLC Responsibility "Market Special Depository."

New FAQs issued by the Office of Foreign Assets Control on May 28 provide more guidance on U.S. sanctions relief for Syria (see 2505230073), including what types of transactions are authorized, what Syria-related sanctions the U.S. is still enforcing and more. The FAQs stress that U.S. banks can process transactions by, to and through the Central Bank of Syria and that the sanctions relief doesn't remove any existing authorizations for humanitarian aid.

Although the Trump administration relaxed a range of sanctions against Syria last week, existing export controls still present risks for people and companies carrying out transactions with the country, law firms said this week.

Although adopting a 50% rule for the Entity List could allow U.S. export controls to capture more bad actors, it could also cause unintended business consequences and may make it more challenging for the Bureau of Industry and Security to add companies to the list, said Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s former export enforcement chief.

The Democratic leaders of two key House committees said this week they’re “deeply concerned” about the Bureau of Industry and Security potentially pivoting away from traditional export control dialogues with allies and asked BIS to respond to oversight questions before the end of next week.