The House passed on voice votes July 11 three amendments aimed at addressing concerns about Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers Huawei and ZTE for inclusion in the chamber's version of the fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 2500). One, led by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., would impose conditions for the Department of Commerce to be able to lift the Bureau of Industry and Security's addition of Huawei to its Entity List that would impose export restrictions on the company, including a finding that Huawei and its executives haven't violated U.S. or United Nations sanctions and haven't engaged in theft of U.S. intellectual property during the preceding five years. Acting Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Nazak Nikakhtar said on July 9 the department is reviewing export license applications to sell to Huawei in order to “mitigate as much of the negative impacts of the entity listing as possible” and hopes to have decisions “soon” (see 1907090068).

The Bureau of industry and Security posted the presentations from its annual conference held July 9-11 in Washington.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Venezuela’s General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, also known as La Dirección General de Contrainteligencia Militar (DGCIM), for operating in the country’s military sector, Treasury said in a July 11 press release.

An increasing number of foreign entities are using front companies to evade restrictions placed on them after being added to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, said Kevin Kurland, director of Commerce’s Office of Enforcement Analysis.

The Commerce Department is planning to release its upcoming advance notice of proposed rulemaking on foundational technologies before it issues its proposed rules on emerging technologies, said Hillary Hess, director of Commerce’s regulatory policy division in the Bureau of Industry and Security, at BIS's annual export controls conference on July 10.

The Commerce Department is planning to issue multiple guidance documents on its blacklisting of Huawei Technologies due to the large number of questions from U.S. exporters, Commerce officials said during the Bureau of Industry and Security's annual export controls conference July 9-11 in Washington. Officials said the guidance will address the most common questions BIS has received from U.S. industries.

The World Customs Organization issued the following release on commercial trade and related matters:​​

The European Commission adopted regulations on July 8 that provide a “single list” that contains contact details “of all Member States’ competent authorities that deal with sanctions” and “the EU Commission’s address for notifications,” according to a post on the EU Sanctions blog. The regulations aim to “harmonize and update the contact details” of the sanctions authorities for EU nations, the regulations say.

The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of July 10 (note that some may also be given separate headlines):

Honey importers are required to meet regulatory requirements, such as prohibitions on the "addition of foreign sugars to a food represented as honey," the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a July 9 notice. "CFIA has a variety of control and enforcement measures at its disposition, including product detention, disposal, order to remove from Canada, and prosecution," the agency said. "Enforcement actions in cases of non-compliance take into consideration the harm caused by the non-compliance, the compliance history of the regulated party, and whether there was intent to violate federal requirements."