A bipartisan, bicameral bill would create a Maritime Security Trust Fund, into which revenues would come from tonnage fees on Chinese-owned and Chinese-flagged ships visiting U.S. ports, special tonnage taxes, light money, and tariffs and duties, including Section 301 tariffs.
The U.N. Security Council removed sanctions from Abdelhafiz Zlitni, who was designated for being a Libyan government official. The U.N. also listed him as serving as the temporary head of the Central Bank of Libya. It didn’t release more information.
China last week imposed sanctions on Canada-based organizations and others in response to Canada’s recent sanctions against Chinese officials for human rights violations (see 2412110016). The designations, taken under Beijing’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, target the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project in Canada and the Canada-Tibet Committee, along with a list of the groups’ officials, according to an unofficial translation of a notice from China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. The sanctions block their property in China and prohibit them from doing business in the country.
Although Congress last week shelved a compromise to restrict outbound investment in China, two key lawmakers said they believe the legislation or something similar could become law next year.
The Bureau of Industry and Security fined a U.S.-based electronics manufacturer and supplier for the semiconductor industry $180,000 after it admitted to exporting 11 shipments to Russia without a license. BIS said the company, Indium Corporation of America, which has factories in Asia and Europe, failed to resolve multiple red flags involving shipments of solder wires, solder ribbon and solder preforms to a Russian defense contractor.
Recent reports of actions by the Spanish government to deny port access to certain U.S. ships could “strain” U.S. trade ties between the two countries, Federal Maritime Commissioner Louis Sola warned in a Dec. 19 statement. He said he’s concerned Spain's actions could threaten U.S. critical supply chains and that he supports the FMC’s ongoing investigation of the matter.
A Federal Maritime Commission administrative law judge ordered marine terminal operator APS East Coast (Amports) Dec. 16 to stop invoicing Ports America Chesapeake (PAC) and Marine Terminals Corporation-East (MTCE) for $1.3 million in non-preferred stevedore access fees, saying the charges were “unjust and unreasonable” because they were “much higher” than the fees charged to the preferred stevedore.
A dispute panel ruled that Mexico's ban on genetically modified white corn, along with its intention to phase out GMO yellow corn for industrial foods and animal feed, violate the NAFTA successor agreement, because they "are not based on relevant international standards, guidelines or recommendations, or on an assessment, as appropriate to the circumstances, of the risk to human, animal, or plant life or health," and Mexico didn't conduct its own documented risk assessment, or base the decree on science.
China notified Australia on Dec. 20 that it’s officially resuming imports of Australian live rock lobster that Beijing had restricted for years (see 2410110007), Australia’s foreign affairs ministry said last week. Australia called the announcement a “major win for our hard-hit live rock lobster industry,” and it shows the value of a “patient, calibrated, and deliberate approach towards stabilising Australia’s relations with China."
Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced a bill Dec. 17 to authorize the president to sanction foreign persons and vessels involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.