Vietnam’s prime minister ordered the country’s government to find ways to expand trade relations with its “key partners,” including by “removing barriers” to entry into the country of foreign investment, according to a July 15 report from Vietnam's Customs mouthpiece Customs News. At a July 13 government meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc heard reports of the country’s assessment of trade relations between Vietnam and several “big partners,” including the U.S., China, South Korea, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Japan. The country is aiming to “build sustainable and balanced trade relations with partners, to combat trade frauds, and fraudulence of goods origin,” the report said. The prime minister asked Vietnam’s ministries to introduce new policies related to “trade, monetary matters, finance-banking, IT and cyber security in order to match with advanced international standards,” the report said.

The dispute between Japan and South Korea over Japan’s export restrictions on advanced technology materials will be raised at the World Trade Organization, according to a July 15 report from The Korea Herald. The report cited a statement from South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, which said the issue has been named as a formal agenda item of the July 23-24 WTO General Council. The move came at the request of South Korea, the report said. The announcement follows Japan’s decision to restrict exports and licensing policies of certain “controlled items” and technologies to South Korea (see 1907010020).

India is increasing import duties on certain Chinese tires for the next five years, according to a July 10 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. The additional tariff will range between about 9 percent and 17.5 percent, the report said, and will cover eight tariff categories on all “China-sourced radial” tires. The tariffs will apply to “outsized tyres typically required by buses or trucks” and is aimed at helping to boost India’s domestic tire manufacturers. A 12 percent to 18 percent import levy already applied to China-made truck and bus radial tires has been in place since 2017.

China’s and Belarus’s Mutual Recognition Arrangement officially takes effect July 24, according to an unofficial translation of a notice from China’s General Administration of Customs. The arrangement will improve customs relations between the two countries, including reducing document reviews, lower inspection rates, higher inspection priorities for goods being shipped between the two countries and “fast customs clearance,” China said.

Commerce denied export privileges for two Iranian nationals and their company after they tried to export a $15,000 micro drill press from the U.S. to Iran, Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security said in a July 8 denied export order. Commerce also fined them $300,000 for trying to violate the Export Administration Regulations and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who's also running for president, has asked an ethics official in the Commerce Department to examine whether the head of the International Trade Administration and the acting undersecretary for Industry and Security have ethical conflicts in the steel and aluminum Section 232 exclusion process. Both ITA and the Bureau of Industry and Security are responsible for evaluating the exclusion requests, and BIS officials ultimately grant or reject the requests.

The House on July 15 passed a bill that would order the president to impose sanctions on corrupt government officials in the Northern Triangle countries, according to a press release from the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The bill, titled the "United States-Northern Triangle Enhanced Engagement Act," would sanction officials involved in bribery, extortion and money laundering through asset freezes and U.S. travel bans. Violators of the sanctions would be subject to penalties in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Britain is considering approving new powers for enforcement of financial sanctions violations, according to a July 15 post on the EU Sanctions blog. The considerations, outlined in the United Kingdom’s 2019-2022 Economic Crime Plan, published in July, could give “private sector supervisors” power to “take enforcement action where there are deficiencies in sanctions implementation,” the post said. The U.K. will also investigate “whether powers to block listings on national security grounds would be appropriate,” the post said.

Days before Turkey followed through on purchases of Russian S-400 missile parts, a State Department official said there would be “consequences” if Turkey followed through on the deal and warned the country would be at risk of U.S. sanctions. R. Clarke Cooper, assistant secretary of State for political-military affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 10 that the Trump administration has “made it very clear” to Turkey that the purchase would likely prompt sanctions. Turkey completed the purchase on July 13, according to a Reuters report. A House resolution passed in June also called for the U.S. to impose sanctions on Turkey if it completed the purchase.

The U.S. has not yet delivered the $8 billion in emergency arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates it announced on May 24, a State Department official told a Senate committee, causing both Republican and Democratic senators to question why the sales justified an emergency.