The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls met with Japanese industry representatives to discuss defense trade, the State Department said in a Nov. 25 tweet. The State Department met with representatives sponsored by Japan's Center for International Cooperation on Security Export Controls, calling it a “great opportunity to expand defense trade ties with a key ally!” The State Department last met with Japanese officials Nov. 23 on the margins of the G-20 foreign ministers meeting in Nagoya, Japan. During the meeting, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan “pledged” to continue helping Japan and South Korea’s trade dispute (see 1910240032) through “trilateral cooperation.”
A U.S. foundation representing organizations in the semiconductor technology sector will move to Switzerland due to concerns over U.S. trade restrictions, according to a Nov. 25 Reuters report. RISC-V Foundation, a non-profit, said it has not yet faced restrictions but is “concerned about possible geopolitical disruption,” according to Reuters. The move comes as the Commerce Department restricts sales to certain Chinese technology companies (see 1911180036 and 1910070076) and prepares to release proposed restrictions on emerging and foundational technologies (see 1911200045).
The U.S. is continuing sanctions on Nicaragua, the White House said Nov. 25. Nicaraguan officials' use of violence, “dismantling” of democratic institutions and corruption continue to “pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy, the White House said.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Corporacion Panamericana, a Cuban company controlled by U.S.-sanctioned Cubametales, Treasury said Nov. 26. Since it was sanctioned, Cubametales has offered Corporacion Panamericana as an intermediary to companies who decline to do business with Cubametales.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 18-22 in case you missed them.
Indian companies are growing increasingly frustrated with restrictive Chinese market access, leading to a more competitive relationship between India and China and a closer Indian alignment with U.S. policies toward China, a trade expert said. However, although India shares U.S. concerns over China, it disagrees with the U.S.’s approach, preferring to engage with countries such as China and Russia diplomatically rather than impose sanctions on them, the expert said.
In the Nov. 25 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
Those who advise NAFTA stakeholders say that it looks like a factory-level inspection regime will be part of what Democrats get in their edits to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but how disruptive that will be for businesses is completely cloudy. Kellie Meiman Hock, a managing partner at McLarty Associates, said she thinks there are ways the inspections could be done that would not make Mexico feel like American government officials are deciding whether Mexican labor laws are being followed. Hock said the two governments could select inspectors who travel together, or it could be a coalition of non-governmental organizations, as was mobilized after more than 1,000 textile workers died in a factory collapse in Bangladesh.
The Department of State published its 2019 fall agenda, including a new mention of an amendment to Category XVI of the U.S. Munitions List for Nuclear Weapons Related Articles. The change will “better harmonize” the State Department’s rules with the Department of Energy’s part 810 regulations. The rule will also ensure that items that provide the U.S. with “critical military or intelligence advantages” are listed on the USML and “remain subject to … export controls at all times.” The State Department plans to issue the rule in December.
Apple was fined about $465,000 for violations of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations after it hosted, sold and “facilitated the transfer” of software applications and content belonging to a sanctioned company, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a Nov. 25 notice. Apple allegedly dealt in “the property and interests” of SIS d.o.o., a Slovenian software company added to OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals List in 2015.