The EU on March 31 launched the application process for authorized “declarants” under its upcoming carbon border adjustment mechnaism, which will allow importers and customs representatives to import CBAM goods when the rules take effect in January 2026 (see 2502060060). The European Commission also published new guidance and videos to help companies apply.
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins is planning to visit six countries in the coming months as part of an "aggressive" effort to "expand markets and boost American agricultural exports," the agency said last week. Rollins will travel to Vietnam, Japan, India, Peru, Brazil and the U.K. She's also scheduling trade missions to Hong Kong, the Dominican Republic, Taiwan, Cote d’Ivoire and Mexico.
Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., plans to reintroduce a bill that would impose property-blocking sanctions on foreign persons who undermine the 1995 peace agreement that ended the Bosnian War, a spokesperson said in an e-mail March 25. The Upholding the Dayton Peace Agreement Through Sanctions Act is aimed at pro-secession Bosnian Serb leaders. The House passed the bill by a wide margin in the last Congress (see 2403190069).
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, introduced a resolution March 27 that would form a bipartisan House committee to develop policy recommendations to counter Mexican drug cartels.
House Select Committee on China ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., urged the Trump administration March 31 to investigate whether China’s Yantai iRay Technology Co. Ltd. is evading U.S. sanctions by selling its thermal imaging products in the U.S. through subsidiaries and other affiliated entities.
The U.S. Trade Representative has published its annual trade estimate, almost 400 pages of tariff and non-tariff barriers in countries around the world. The report noted, "The estimates included in this report constitute an attempt to quantitatively assess the potential effect of removing certain foreign trade barriers to particular U.S. exports. However, the estimates cannot be used to determine the total effect on U.S. exports, either to the country in which a barrier has been identified, or to the world in general. In other words, the estimates contained in this report cannot be aggregated in order to derive a total estimate of gain in U.S. exports to a given country or the world."
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned six people and seven entities tied to the money laundering network supporting the Mexico-based Sinaloa Cartel, which the agency called one of the “most notorious and violent drug trafficking organizations in the world.”
The State Department this week sanctioned six Hong Kong government and police officials who it said have helped to implement Hong Kong’s repressive national security law, which penalizes government dissent.
The Bureau of Industry and Security’s recent semiconductor-related export controls could place large burdens not only on exporters but also on BIS enforcement, which will face a host of challenges trying to track whether certain countries have filled their allocated chip quotas, researchers said.
The U.S. this month arrested and charged a Pakistani-Canadian national with conspiracy to violate U.S. export controls after DOJ said he illegally shipped millions of dollars worth of controlled items to entities in Pakistan, including ones on the Entity List, all while hiding the true end-users from U.S. exporters.