Belgium and Sweden this month joined the EU's Centralized Clearance for Import (CCI) system, which the bloc is hoping to establish as its "one-stop shop" for customs clearance into the EU. The system -- which has already been available for use by European businesses in Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Croatia and Italy -- allows customs authorities of different member states to act as "one customs authority for the clearance of goods," enabling traders to submit customs declarations to their member state "for goods physically presented to a customs office in any other Member State" operating as part of CCI.

To counter Hezbollah’s drug trafficking and other extensive illegal money-raising efforts in Latin America, the U.S. should encourage more countries in the region to designate the Lebanon-based group a terrorist organization, a former State Department official told lawmakers Oct. 21.

The Senate Commerce Committee approved a bill Oct. 21 that would direct the Commerce Department to lead a review of challenges posed by Chinese foreign investment in the U.S. (see 2508010044).

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the top Democrat on a Russian secondary sanctions bill, said he's not discouraged that Senate Majority Leader John Thune is putting off a vote on the bill again. The bill has 85 sponsors in the Senate, and would give the president the ability to put up to 500% tariffs on the goods of countries that buy Russian fossil fuels; it also would expand sanctions on Russian officials.

Open-source intelligence software firm WireScreen said it has identified more than 20,000 Chinese entities that are subject to U.S. export restrictions as a result of the Bureau of Industry and Security's 50% rule, released last month (see 2510030041 and 2509290017).

The EU should expand export controls over advanced technology and impose new tariffs against China to counter Beijing’s sweeping export curbs on rare earths (see 2510090021), a major European think tank said this week.

The European Commission imposed antidumping duties Oct. 20 on steel track shoes from China, the Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security announced. The AD rate is 62.5% and is imposed following the imposition of provisional duties, which have been collected since April 22. Steel track shoes are used as parts for tracked equipment that's used in the construction and mining sectors.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese thanked President Donald Trump for supporting the nuclear-powered submarine deal and defense trade agreement known as AUKUS, calling it "so important for us," at a White House signing ceremony Oct. 20 for cooperation on critical minerals mining and processing.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Oct. 17 rejected both the government’s and law firm Husch Blackwell’s motions for judgment in a Freedom of Information Act dispute involving the Entity List. It gave the Commerce Department time to provide adequate justifications for its decisions to withhold certain information but said the ones it already provided weren’t enough (Husch Blackwell v. Department of Commerce, D.D.C. # 24-2733.

President Donald Trump told reporters that unless China stops fentanyl shipments, resumes buying U.S. soybeans and stops playing "the rare earth game with us," he won't lower tariffs.