China has informed the EU that it has lifted sanctions against certain European Parliament lawmakers, the Parliament said April 30. The sanctions, imposed by Beijing in March 2021, targeted five Parliament members and the body’s Subcommittee on Human Rights. Roberta Metsola, Parliament president, said EU committees “must be able to discuss European interests with their Chinese counterparts without fear of repercussions,” adding that the best way to approach China is “through engagement and dialogue.”
President Donald Trump on May 1 threatened to impose secondary sanctions against any country or person buying "any amount" of oil or petrochemical products from Iran. Those nations or people "will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form," he said on Truth Social. The Treasury Department has published several rounds of sanctions in recent months against people and companies, including shipowners and their vessels, involved in moving or buying Iranian oil (see 2504280013, 2504100048, 2503130021 and 2502240019).
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned three people and two entities in Mexico for their ties to a drug trafficking and fuel theft network linked to the Mexico-based Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. The Treasury Department also published a new alert with red flags that could signal a company is using a U.S. bank as part of a fuel smuggling scheme on the U.S. southwest border.
Companies subject to U.S. investment screening are hoping the Trump administration takes a more predictable approach to reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., including by focusing on purely national security concerns, industry officials said this week.
Egypt opened a safeguard investigation on hot-rolled flat steel on April 22, the country told the World Trade Organization. Egypt's Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade said interested parties should make themselves known within 30 days of April 22.
The EU and Canada on May 14 will hold a virtual "debrief" to industry members after the two sides' seventh annual meeting of their regulatory cooperation forum earlier that day. Registration for the debrief closes May 5. The forum was created under the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement to help the two sides better harmonize trade regulations.
The State Department has approved a possible $1.33 billion military sale to Poland, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said April 29. The sale includes “AIM-120D Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles" and related elements of logistics and program support. The principal contractor will be RTX Corp.
Luke Lindberg, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be undersecretary of agriculture for trade and foreign agricultural affairs, said April 29 that he would seek to lower barriers to U.S. agricultural exports in a wide range of places, including the EU, which “routinely shuts out our products at the altar of non-scientific based claims.”
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved by voice vote April 30 the nomination of former State Department official Thomas DiNanno to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. The nomination now heads to the full Senate for its consideration. DiNanno testified before the committee April 9 that speeding up foreign military sales will be a priority for him if he’s confirmed (see 2504090026).
The House Foreign Affairs Committee’s foreign arms sales task force held the second in a series of roundtables April 29 to receive defense industry input on improving the U.S. foreign arms sales process, the committee announced April 30. During the closed-door session, the task force heard from the Aerospace Industries Association and the National Defense Industrial Association. The committee revealed in January that it was forming the task force (see 2501220086).