Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Treasury Department included its Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) in the Trump administration’s hiring freeze but is now considering giving it relief from the pause due to its national security role, the department told lawmakers.
The U.S. should tighten export controls on advanced artificial intelligence chips and bolster security requirements for frontier AI labs, which will slow American adversaries from developing their own AI technologies and keep the U.S. in the lead, AI research and development firm Anthropic told the White House this month.
Robert Rasmussen, a technology policy coordinator within the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, resigned from his role after accepting the terms of the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program, he announced March 8 on LinkedIn. Rasmussen also worked as an export compliance specialist in the Bureau of Industry and Security from 2016 to 2020 before joining DDTC in 2023. The White House offered the deferred resignation program to federal employees earlier this year, promising to pay them through September in exchange for their resignation.
Guatemala formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies on March 10, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 92. The WTO needs 19 more countries to accept to get to two-thirds of the membership, the threshold for the agreement to take effect.
The European Commission proposed extending the current duty exemption for imports of Ukrainian iron and steel products, which are a "significant source of revenue for Ukraine," the commission said last week. The current waiver, which has been extended twice before, is due to expire in June. The proposed extension must be approved by the European Council and Parliament. "The Commission is currently working on a longer-term solution which will provide economic certainty and a stable framework for trade to both Ukraine and the EU," it said.
The European Commission last week released updated preferential rules of origin guidance, including new guidelines for how companies and member states should verify proof of origin (Section C). The commission said the section “addresses the processes for requests exchanged between EU Member States and third countries, as well as clarifications on importer’s knowledge.”
Mexico recently renewed a presidential decree that allows certain agricultural products from non-free trade agreement partners to benefit from zero tariffs, USDA said in a March report. The renewal is valid through Dec. 31, but USDA said companies already registered under the program may use the benefits of the decree until March 31, 2026. The agency added that the decree has increased competition for U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico, particularly for pork and chicken.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, and ranking member Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., introduced a bill last week aimed at curbing China’s export of fentanyl precursor chemicals to Mexican drug traffickers.
A House Republican proposal to pass a temporary government spending measure, or continuing resolution (CR), for the rest of FY 2025 would prevent Congress from weighing in on export control policy, such as by opposing the easing of restrictions on Russia, according to a memo released March 8 by Senate Appropriations Committee ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash.