The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued a Sept. 23 notice reminding blocked-property holders to submit their Annual Report of Blocked Property by Sept. 30. A report must be submitted of all blocked property held as of June 30, OFAC said.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced a $4 million settlement with British Arab Commercial Bank plc for 72 violations of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations, OFAC said in a Sept. 17 notice.

The promise of good news for farmers in the U.S.-Japan trade deal is oversold, five Democrats told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, as they complained in a letter about how the deal was negotiated without keeping Congress in the loop.

In the Sept. 20 edition of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:

The United Kingdom’s HM Revenue & Customs on Sept. 20 published a new guidance document outlining new requirements for European Union companies trading with the U.K. following a no-deal Brexit. The guidance includes information on getting goods through customs once the U.K. leaves the EU, as well as changes to value-added tax and the VAT IT systems, transferring personal data, and complying with U.K. product standards.

The United Kingdom and Japan signed a deal to temporarily recognize each other’s standards conformity assessment regimes after Brexit until a formal mutual recognition agreement is put into place, the U.K. Department for International Trade said. It covers electrical products, telecommunications and radio equipment, good laboratory practice (GLP) for chemicals and good manufacturing practice (GMP) for medicinal products, and provides that Japan and the U.K. recognize each other’s conformity testing. That means U.K. goods will be able to be tested in the U.K. against Japanese regulations and sold in Japan without additional testing, and vice versa. The agreement will take effect upon the U.K.’s exit from the European Union, and remain in effect until a U.K.-Japan MRA comes into force, the U.K. said.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Sept. 20 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Argentina will begin an antidumping investigation on Chinese tricycles and announced the results of three other investigations on Chinese goods, according to a Sept. 19 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Argentina’s investigation into Chinese tricycles exclude tricycles with electric motors and could result in duties on the Chinese item for five years, the report said. Argentina also determined that China has been dumping certain aluminum alloy sheet. It investigated whether certain footwear from China is circumventing AD duties by going through a Malaysia exporter and found in the affirmative, but found in an anti-circumvention AD duty review that certain sunglasses produced in Taiwan are not circumventing the AD duty order, the report said.

Japan has agreed to World Trade Organization consultations with South Korea, Japan’s minister of Economy, Trade and Industry said Sept. 20. The minister said Japan is trying to “coordinate specific schedules through diplomatic routes,” according to an unofficial translation of the transcript from a news conference, but stood by the country’s export restrictions. “Japan's previous position that it is consistent with the WTO agreement remains unchanged,” the minister said. South Korea requested WTO consultations with Japan on Sept. 11 as the two sides continued to swap restrictive trade measures dating back to July. Japan and South Korea met in Beijing in August but did not announce substantial progress after the talks (see 1908160046).

China and Russia signed several trade-related agreements when the two sides met in Russia last week, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a Sept. 19 press release. The two countries signed a “number of pragmatic cooperation documents” to expand trade and “voice support for the multilateral trading system,” China said, according to an unofficial translation. The two sides said they support the World Trade Organization and announced their intention to ratify an “upcoming ‘China-Eurasia Economic Union Economic and Trade Cooperation Agreement,’” China said.