House Select Committee on China ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., urged the Trump administration Oct. 8 to open new markets for U.S. soybean exports in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Oct. 7 that he hopes to have the Senate take up his Russia sanctions and tariff bill by month’s end to send a message to next month’s Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Canada.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said late Oct. 7 that the defense export approval process seems to be proceeding normally despite the government shutdown. Risch told Export Compliance Daily that he continues to receive a “constant flow” of arms sale notifications from the executive branch. “It hasn’t been interrupted.”

The Senate voted 51-47 along party lines late Oct. 7 to confirm a group of nominees including David Peters to lead the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement, Thomas DiNanno to be undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, and Jacob Helberg to be undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment.

The U.N. Security Council and the U.K. this week amended listings under their sanctions regimes.

The Bureau of Industry and Security's recently issued FAQs for its new Affiliates Rule (see 2509290017) are “helpful in clarifying the scope” of the rule, but they also leave some “burning” questions unanswered, ArentFox said in a client alert.

The Bureau of Industry and Security added 29 entities to the Entity List, including three addresses, for either helping to illegally supply U.S.-origin items to Iran or for their ties to Iranian procurement networks, BIS said in a final rule released and effective Oct. 8. BIS said the entities supplied or diverted aircraft parts, drone components, electronic items and other products to Iran, including to Iranian companies already on the Entity List or the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals List.

Treasury Department official Derek Theurer has been appointed to perform the duties of deputy secretary, the agency announced Oct. 7. Michael Faulkender, who received Senate confirmation as Treasury's deputy secretary in March (see 2503270007), reportedly left the department in August.

The European Commission announced a new proposal Oct. 6 to shrink the size of its tariff-rate quota for steel to 18.3 million tons a year and double the tariff rate for out-of-quota steel to 50%. The proposal would decrease the quota by 47% from 2024 and double the current 25% tariff rate applicable to out-of-quota steel.

The Latvian State Security Service (VDD) has asked to begin a criminal prosecution of two Latvian nationals for providing prohibited project management services to Russian companies, violating European Union sanctions, it announced Oct. 1.