The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control is inserting technical changes and adding references in several of its sanctions regimes, OFAC said in a notice in the July 23 Federal Register. The changes amend the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations (GTSR) and the Transnational Criminal Organizations Sanctions Regulations (TCOSR) to make references to the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Amendments Act of 2018, OFAC said. The agency is also amending the GTSR to “implement and reference” the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act of 2018 and amending the TCOSR to implement a March executive order relating to “significant transnational criminal organizations.” The notice also makes several “technical and conforming changes” to certain provisions of the Hizballah Financial Sanctions Regulations, which corrects two “internal references” and details sanctions exemptions that allow for U.S. compliance with United Nations regulations, OFAC said. The changes take effect July 23.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Larry Kudlow, the president's chief economic adviser, were set to meet July 22 with executives from Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Micron, Google and other tech firms, Reuters reported. The news agency said the meeting was to discuss the restrictions on exports to Huawei, which have hurt many chip makers, and have led Google to tell Huawei its phones cannot use Android operating software. A White House spokesman told Reuters that while the Huawei ban will likely come up, that's not the purpose of the meeting.

The supply chain security executive order issued in May is directly related to Huawei, Akin Gump lawyers said, and will likely restrict Huawei from selling certain items if those items impact U.S. national security. The executive order (see 1905160072) requires the Commerce Department to issue regulations within 150 days (that is, by Oct. 14) and bars "transactions involving information and communications technology [ICT] or services" without a broad interagency review.

CBP released a draft version of its business process document for Electronic Export Manifest and is hoping to get feedback at the CBP Trade Symposium in Chicago, the agency said in an email. "If you plan to attend the Exports Modernization Feedback Session on Wednesday, July 24, we are asking participants to be prepared to provide feedback on the attached CBP draft Electronic Export Manifest Business Process document," the agency said. "CBP is interested in hearing your feedback during the session."

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of July 19 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Canada is strengthening its antidumping regime “to better protect Canadian industry from unfair trade practices,” including making changes to its investigative and review procedures, the Canada Border Services Agency said in a July 19 press release. The changes update Canada’s criteria for beginning an investigation and detail “specific factors” for determining when CBSA should “initiate a full re-investigation or a more streamlined normal value review,” the release said.

Laos adopted a “legal framework” through new legislation that will allow it in the future to impose antidumping or countervailing penalties on imports, according to a July 17 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Previously, any “punitive recourse” for product dumping had “not been legally deliverable.” No product list has been developed.

China is reducing restrictions on foreign market access in certain sectors, including in the “services,” agricultural, mining and manufacturing sectors, according to a July 17 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. China is reducing the number of sectors with restrictions from “48 to 40 on a national basis and from 45 to 37 in the case of businesses operating within one of the mainland’s Pilot Free Trade Zones,” the report said. The changes were outlined in regulations issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce.

Australia recently updated excise duty rates on beer that may provide benefits for small beer manufacturers, according to a July 19 report from KPMG. Beer packaged in kegs that hold between 8 and 48 liters will now be subject to the same duty rate as beer packaged in “the standard keg size” of 48 liters, the report said. Previously, kegs that held more than 48 liters of beer were subject to lower tariff rates than smaller kegs. Australia hopes the change will “provide small and microbrewers of beer a greater chance of remaining competitive against their global and sector-dominating counterparts, due to the fact that craft and microbrewers generally use smaller kegs in their production,” KPMG said. The change also makes certain alcohol manufacturers eligible to claim a refund of “60 percent of excise duty paid within a twelve month period to a maximum of $100,000,” the report said. KPMG said the previous cap was $30,000. The changes took effect July 1.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls issued a July 17 notice saying that Access Certificates for Electronic Services (ACES) certificates are required to “access the DTrade defense export licensing system.” The DDTC said all ACES certificates “must expire” before Aug. 1, 2020, and that the ACES provider, IdenTrust, will continue to issue certificates if they are “posted with an expiration date” of July 31, 2020, or earlier. “If you purchase an ACES certificate after July 31st, 2019, the validity period will be truncated to less than a full year,” the DDTC said. Questions about the ACES transition should be directed to IdenTrust at Support@IdenTrust.com or to the DDTC’s help desk at dtradehelpdesk@state.gov.