The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to take up a State Department authorization bill “sometime after” the August congressional recess, committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said Jan. 23.

Companies that send tips about possible sanctions breaches to the new U.K. Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation won’t necessarily be notified if their tips lead to an enforcement action, the agency said in new guidance last week.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Jan. 24 officially removed sanctions from all people and entities designated under a sanctions authority that had targeted violent Israeli settlers and organizations in the West Bank (see 2501210023). OFAC “removed the West Bank-Related Sanctions program from its website and removed all persons designated under” the West Bank-related executive order 14115, signed by President Joe Biden last year (see 2402010053), from its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List. “All property and interests in property blocked under E.O. 14115 are unblocked,” OFAC said.

A former top Commerce Department adviser in the Biden administration expects President Donald Trump and Congress to continue prioritizing export controls and other trade restrictions, although he said the government’s success partly depends on whether the administration can craft a clear, coordinated economic security strategy that doesn’t only rely on tariffs.

Israel formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies Jan. 22, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 89. The WTO needs 22 more to get two-thirds of the membership, the threshold needed for the agreement to take effect.

The U.S. and Vietnam agreed to resolve a long-running dispute on U.S. antidumping duty proceedings on fish fillets from Vietnam. The dispute was originally brought in 2018 to challenge the proceedings as being in violation of the WTO antidumping agreement. In particular, Vietnam challenged the U.S. government's imposition of AD cash deposit requirements in the fifth, sixth and seventh reviews of the AD order, covering entries in 2007-2010. Vietnam claimed that the U.S, should have revoked the order following the seventh review and that the U.S. unlawfully used a country-wide AD rate based on adverse facts available against respondents that were not individually investigated.

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., will chair the Senate Banking Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance in the new 119th Congress, the full committee announced Jan. 23. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., will be ranking member of the subcommittee, whose jurisdiction includes export controls and the International Trade Administration. The subcommittee also will include Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.; Jim Banks, R-Ind., Dave McCormick, R-Pa., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.

Republican lawmakers reintroduced several bills Jan. 22 aimed at curbing the acquisition of American land by certain foreign countries.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said Jan. 22 that he plans to reintroduce a bill to prohibit Americans from owning the publicly traded securities of U.S.-sanctioned companies. Sherman made his comment about the People's Republic of China Military and Human Rights Capital Markets Sanctions Act during the House Financial Services Committee’s organizational meeting for the new 119th Congress. Sherman previously introduced the bill in March 2024 (see 2409270021).

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., President Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Jan. 21 that she would favor reimposing sanctions on Iran for violating its nuclear weapons-related obligations.