President Biden announced last week his decision to veto and return to Congress a resolution (SJRes 38) to eliminate the domestic manufacturing standards for electric vehicle chargers under Buy America rules. In his veto message, the President said the resolution would weaken Buy American requirements by reverting to the Federal Highway Administration's general waiver for manufactured products.
While foreign ownership of U.S.agricultutal land has grown nearly 50% in the past six years, USDA and national defense agencies may not have all the information they need to know about which countries are investing and where, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Foreign investors in U.S. agricultural land are required to submit forms describing their transactions to USDA, as required by the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA). But the GAO notes AFIDA was not designed as a national security program, and "AFIDA forms are focused on data collection rather than identifying potential national security concerns."
The European Commission has issued new Guidelines on data gathering and processing on export controls. This follows the Commission White Paper on export controls, released Thursday 25 January, which highlights the need to fully implement the EU’s dual-use regulation. The Guidelines set out in detail the process for the collection of licensing data by the European Commission and the competent authorities of the Member States. The White Paper suggests several measures, including the reinforcement of uniform controls in the EU, establishing a forum for political coordination on export controls, enhancing the coordination of new National Control Lists, and moving forward the evaluation timeline of the Dual-use Regulation.
Former Locke Lord, LLP Equity Partner Mark Scott was sentenced to 10 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos for laundering approximately $400 million of proceeds from the massive international fraud scheme known as “OneCoin.” The sentencing followed Mr. Scott's conviction on all counts at trial on November 21, 2019. Beginning in early 2016, Mr. Scott formed a series of fake private equity investment funds in the British Virgin Islands known as the “Fenero Funds.” He then disguised incoming transfers of approximately $400 million into the Fenero Funds as investments from “wealthy European families,” when in fact the money represented proceeds of the OneCoin fraud scheme.
Michael Vaccaro is the new permanent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Defense Trade, responsible for The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC).
A group of Democratic lawmakers has called for the Commerce Department to strengthen export controls and end-use checks for firearm exports. The letter comes as Commerce prepares for the expiration of its 90-day pause on export approvals of certain firearms and related components.
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has expanded the scope of the EAR’s Russian and Belarusian Industry Sector Sanctions by adding 95 6-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) codes to the list of items requiring a license for export, reexport, or transfer (in-country) to Russia or Belarus. The expanded list of items includes certain chemicals, lubricants, and metals, and it covers the entirety of Chapter 88 of the HTS (aircraft, spacecraft, and parts thereof).
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that Elizabeth “Liz” Cannon will serve as the first Executive Director of the Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (OICTS) beginning on Monday, January 22, 2024. OICTS is charged with implementing a series of Executive Orders (EOs) under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) focused on protecting domestic information and communications systems from threats posed by foreign adversaries.
The PROVE It Act, a bipartisan bill, was recently passed by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Introduced by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Chris Coons (D-DE), the act aims to establish whether U.S.-made goods are more climate-friendly compared to similar products made overseas.
The International Trade Commission announced Tuesday it is launching a new fact finding investigation that will examine the export competitiveness of the apparel industries in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia and Pakistan. The investigation was requested by the US Trade Representative. The ITC will prepare a public report.
World Trade Organization members agreed Tuesday to adopt the draft text on proposed disciplines for addressing subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing, which have depleted global fish stocks. This draft serves as the basis for finalizing an outcome in the remaining six weeks before the 13th Ministerial Conference. Issued last month by fisheries negotiations chair Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland, the draft enables members to negotiate a clear text for the trade ministers' meeting in Abu Dhabi on February 26.
The United States and India have agreed to pursue talks aimed at enhancing trade in the areas of critical minerals, customs and trade facilitation, supply chains and trade in high tech products at the 14th ministerial-level meeting of the Trade Policy Forum. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai and India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said they will develop an ambitious and forward looking roadmap for enhanced cooperation in order to achieve economically meaningful outcomes.
China and Pakistan have proposed a “joint ministerial statement” on “strengthening the resilience and stability of global industrial and supply chains” to be issued at the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference, our correspondent writes. In their proposal (WT/GC/W/891/Rev.1), China and Pakistan said the ministerial statement recognizes the severe impact of the “pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, coupled with protectionist and unilateral measures” on global supply chains.
Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy, the Chair of Doha agriculture negotiations, plans to issue a draft text for the World Trade Organization's 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), addressing key issues including public stockholding (PSH) programs for food security and special safeguard mechanisms (SSM) for developing countries. This development follows a one-and-a-half-day special session where stark differences in positions were evident.
Canada is filing a challenge under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on the US decision to maintain antidumping and countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber. “Canada is disappointed …
The facilitator of the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement reform, Marco Tulio Molina Tejeda, circulated the fourth draft of the confidential ministerial decision, our correspondent writes. This draft remains silent on the appeal/review mechanism and the restoration of the Appellate Body. It introduces terms like “adjudicators,” absent in the current dispute settlement understanding, according to sources.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers are calling on US Trade Representative Katherine Tai to press for renewal of the long-standing Moratorium on Customs Duties on Electronic Transmissions transactions at the World Trade Organization’s upcoming 13th ministerial conference. The moratorium covers electronic transmissions of both digital goods like e-books, music, movies and video games and digital services (like software, emails and text messages).
The United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at the Atento Servicios, S.A. de C.V. facilities in the city of Pachuca, state of Hidalgo, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Both Atento locations in Pachuca offer call center services to BBVA Mexico, a subsidiary of the Spanish bank BBVA Group. The request marks the nineteenth time the United States has formally invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the first time the United States has done so in the telecommunications sector.
The Federal Reserve Board on Friday issued an enforcement action and fined the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and its New York branch approximately $2.4 million for their unauthorized use and disclosure of confidential supervisory information (CSI). New York state regulators fined the bank an additional $30 million.
OFAC has released the first video in its “OFAC Basics” video series. The OFAC Basics: Sanctions List Search video provides viewers with a brief tutorial on how to use OFAC’s Sanctions List Search Tool and recommended steps for assessing a potential match to one of OFAC’s published sanctions lists.
