The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS)  added six companies to the Entity list Tuesday, four for their involvement in training Chinese military pilots in NATO tactics. BIS also added two UAE- based entities to the Entity List because they repeatedly engaged in “dilatory or evasive conduct, including the provision of false, misleading, or incomplete information, during end-use checks.”   

Neither the SEC nor the DOJ filed a new FCPA Enforcement Action in the second quarter of 2024, which is relatively rare, according to a report from Stanford University's FCPA Clearinghouse. The last time a quarter passed without a single new enforcement action was in 2013, and before that, in 2003. Enforcement activity in the first six months of the year was the lowest recorded in almost two decades.

The USTR's office Monday released the second Report on the Operation of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) with Respect to Trade in Automotive Goods . The  conclusion of the report is that there is no conclusion.   The automotive industry continues preparing for full implementation of the USMCA rules of origin (ROOs) when special flexibilities afforded under alternative staging regimes begin to expire in 2025. 

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Export Enforcement published an updated version of Don’t Let This Happen to You!, a compendium of case examples highlighting BIS criminal and administrative enforcement efforts. The publication was last updated in March 2024.

The European Council today adopted restrictive measures targeting the Belarusian economy, extending the export ban on dual-use/advanced goods and technologies, the measures include maritime navigation goods and technologies, and luxury goods.  Also controlled are services exports, transport, and select imports from the Russian vassal state. The regulation requires that EU exporters insert in their future contract the so-called 'no-Belarus clause', through which they contractually prohibit the re-exportation to Belarus or re-exportation for use in Belarus of sensitive goods and technology, battlefield goods, firearms and ammunition.

While Hanoi's red carpet treatement for longtime ally Valdimir Putin spurs consternation in Washington, economic statecraft with the country's largest trading partner continues apace.  …

The Office of the United States Trade Representative Friday released its 2024 Biennial Report  on the Implementation of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Report.  The top destination markets for US exports were South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Angola, while the top suppliers to the US were South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Angola, and Côte d’Ivoire.

The proposed purchase of US Steel by Japan’s Nippon would undermine US trade enforcement, three Senate Democrats argue in letters to key Administration officials. Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Bob Casey (Pa) and John Fetterman (Pa) raised the alarm that Nippon’s proposed purchase of US Steel would destabilize the trade enforcement system – and in the process threaten US industry, workers and national security.

House Republicans’ proposed cuts to the Commerce Department’s fiscal year 2025 budget will undermine the department’s efforts to fight China’s attempts to illegally obtain US …

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito discussed their shared concerns about the use of non-market practices involving supply sources for strategic goods. The two held a ministerial meeting yesterday of the Japan-US Commercial and Industrial Partnership.  After bilateral consultations, the two ministers met with their Korean counterpart.

While Hanoi's red carpet treatement for longtime ally Valdimir Putin spurs consternation in Washington, economic statecraft with the country's largest trading partner continues apace.  Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose W. Fernandez met with counterparts at the first-ever 2024 U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) Economic Dialogue in Washington Tuesday

Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged foreign investors to take advantage of the Administration’s domestic investments in areas like semiconductors and clean energy technology that are making the United States an ever more attractive investment destination. Mr. Blinken pointed to the newly-established Economic Diplomacy Action Group, that is tasked with boosting US competitiveness and attracting increased foreign investment.

The facilitator overseeing the work on the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement reform presented a report June 20 on various aspects of the central issue concerning the “appeal/review” mechanism that could replace the binding Appellate Body and thereby attenuate the enforcement function of the multilateral trade body, said people familiar with the developments. Without a robust enforcement function undergirding the two-tier dispute settlement system, which is seen as the jewel in the crown of the Uruguay Round trade agreements that created the WTO in 1995, the value purpose of negotiating any new agreements would become meaningless, said people familiar with the negotiations.

Wednesday Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), United Steelworkers leadership and Cleveland Cliffs leadership called on the administration to act to stop the surge in Mexican steel imports, which has been attributed to the Chinese government routing steel through Mexico to avoid U.S. tariffs. "The Mexican government is currently violating a 2019 agreement with the U.S. and threatening steelworkers in Ohio and around the country," according to a statement.

Aid for Trade unlocked $648 billion between 2006 and 2022, according to a new World Trade Organization report. In her opening remarks at the WTO’s meeting on aide for trade, Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said: "One of the most remarkable changes since 1995 is that trade-enabled growth has lifted over 1.5 billion people out of extreme poverty.”

The United States, China and New Zealand used a meeting on aid for trade to to pitch for early conclusion of the World Trade Organization’s fisheries subsidies agreement.   The meeting became a venue for advancing the stalled fisheries subsidies agreement which continues to suffer from alleged historical asymmetries. 

The US Export-Import Bank is “laser focused” on the challenges posed by China, but needs Congress to remove some of its lending restraints so that it can compete against Beijing, Bank Chair and President Reta Jo Lewis told lawmakers Thursday. The Bank’s China and Transformational Exports Program and Make More in America Initiative are helping, but “we can and should do more,” she told a House Financial Services subcommittee.

In response to continued development of Tehran's nuclear capabilities, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced additional measures against Iranian petrochemical transport and trade. "Over the past month, Iran has announced steps to further expand its nuclear program in ways that have no credible peaceful purpose," said Mr. Blinken.  "We remain committed to never letting Iran obtain a nuclear weapon, and we are prepared to use all elements of national power to ensure that outcome."

Milwaukee Tool faces allegations of utilizing forced labor in a Chinese prison factory to manufacture work gloves, where workers endured harsh conditions, including beatings and torture. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, asserts that the  company either knew or should have known that the gloves were produced through forced labor, contravening the U.S. Trafficking Victim Protection Act.

U.S. Codex Office (USCO) invites interested persons to submit their comments on this notice of the Sanitary (human and animal health) and phytosanitary (plant health)  standard- setting activities of the Codex Alimentarius (Codex) The notice also provides a list of other standard-setting activities of Codex, including commodity standards, guidelines, codes of practice, and revised texts.