The EU will consider upcoming U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum as it enters the final stages of a review of its steel safeguard measures (see 2412180032), with the aim of protecting European firms from import surges caused by the coming tariffs, said Leopoldo Rubinacci, the European Commission’s deputy director-general for trade.
The Census Bureau is revising error message 26C in the Automated Export System, which alerts users when the U.S. Principal Party in Interest Address State Code and the U.S. State of Origin Code don’t match, the agency said in a Feb. 20 email to industry.
The U.K. is urging allies to use sanctions to target people smugglers and organized immigration crime gangs, the country’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said last week. It said Foreign Secretary David Lammy planned to speak with partners about the sanctions at the recent Munich Security Conference, including asking them to “replicate Britain’s world-first plans for a sanctions regime aimed squarely at organised immigration crime gangs and their networks.”
The Office of Foreign Assets Control launched a new “file finder” function that allows users to search and “efficiently navigate” all content published on the agency’s website. The search function, published Feb. 20, allows users to search for general licenses, Federal Register notices, executive orders and other legal documents, press charts, advisories, specific guidance and “many other records.” Users can search by document title, document type and the contents of each document. Questions should be directed to O_F_A_C@treasury.gov.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control this week sanctioned James Kabarebe, Rwanda’s state minister for regional integration, who the agency said is “central” to the country’s support for the March 23 Movement (M23), a designated armed group responsible for human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. OFAC also sanctioned Lawrence Kanyuka Kingston, a senior member of M23 and the Congo River Alliance, a U.S.-sanctioned coalition of rebel groups looking to overthrow the DRC government.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control updated the sanctions entries for several Latin America-based criminal groups to reflect the State Department's labeling of them as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists (see 2502190011). OFAC revised the Specially Designated Nationals List entries for Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Gulf Cartel, La Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cartel del Noreste (also known as Los Zetas), MS-13, the Sinaloa Cartel and Tren de Aragua.
The U.S. has so far declined to tell the EU how it chose the 18 countries that will benefit from mostly unrestricted access to advanced artificial intelligence chips under the Bureau of Industry and Security’s AI diffusion rule, the European Commission’s chief trade enforcement officer said this week, making it “very difficult” for EU officials to negotiate lifting the restrictions.
Christopher Padilla is leaving his role as vice president for government and regulatory affairs at IBM to join the Brunswick Group as a senior adviser, he announced on LinkedIn. Padilla, a former Bureau of Industry and Security senior official, said he will advise on trade and tariff issues.
Kimberly Gahan, a lawyer formerly with the Pentagon, State Department and National Security Council, has joined GE Aerospace as chief counsel for regulatory affairs, she announced on LinkedIn. Gahan, who left the government last month, was the State Department’s assistant legal adviser for nonproliferation and arms control from July 2023 to April 2024.
Taiwan formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies Feb. 18, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 90. The WTO needs 21 more countries to accept to get to two-thirds of the membership, the threshold for the agreement to take effect.