A California Telecoms consultant pleaded guilty to exceeding the scope of OFAC approval for advising Iranian telecommunications providers by providing unlicensed software. According to court documents, Farhad Nafeiy obtained licenses – or approvals – from OFAC for advising non-Iranian telecommunications companies on doing business with Iran. However, those licenses did not authorize Nafeiy to provide any hardware, software or technology directly to Iran. Nafeiy exceeded his OFAC licenses, thereby violating the ITSR and IEEPA, by directly providing software upgrades to telecommunications equipment in Iran.

  Not to be outdone by Chairman Mike Gallagher of the Congressional Select Committee on the CCP, the Chairs of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Tuesday released two letters to the Players and Owners of the National Basketball Association, calling for diligence to ensure NBA merchandise is not tainted by slavery. The Chairs expressed disappointment with the organizations' earlier responses and urge a more “fulsome response” this time. 

This Sunday, 1 October, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) began its transitional phase. In its transitional phase, CBAM will only apply to imports of cement, iron and steel, aluminium, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen. EU importers of those goods will have to report on the volume of their imports and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions embedded during their production, but without paying any financial adjustment at this stage.

October 3, BIS announced four denials of export privileges for parties convicted of unauthorized exports of firearms or ammunition.

Stanford University has agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by submitting proposals for federal research grants that failed to disclose current and pending support that 12 Stanford faculty members were receiving from foreign sources. The settlement relates to research grants that Stanford received between 2015 and 2020 from five federal agencies: the Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has published new best practice guidance for industry to help prevent items that are considered the most significant to Russian weaponry requirements from being diverted for use in Russia’s war against Ukraine. The. Septermber 28 guidance recommends that exporters and reexporters of these highest priority items seek written assurances of compliance from their customers to help prevent diversion.

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced today that the United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at the Teklas Automotive facility in Aguascalientes, which manufactures automotive parts, are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Investigations, Orders, or Reviews: Brass Rod from India FR Document: 2023-21553 Citation: 88 FR 67240 PDF Pages …

The United States is apparently going to work closely with China on Washington’s proposal to enhance transparency at the World Trade Organization, as some members seemed indifferent or somewhat opposed to the US proposal to improve transparency with some naming-and-shaming provisions, our correspondent has learned. During the group meetings to discuss industrial policies, industrialization and policy space at the just-concluded retreat on Tuesday, Washington and Beijing – which were placed in the same group – discussed how to extend special and differential treatment while adhering to transparency provisions.

India defended its new ban on rice exports at the World Trade Organization, insisting that it is a regulation rather than a restriction and critical for ensuring the food security of 1.4 billion people, in the face of a volley of questions and concerns from the United States, Canada and Australia among others, our correspondent reports. At the WTO’s Committee on Agriculture meeting, India said it is committed to ensuring food security in importing countries by granting exemptions to those in need upon their governments' requests. India said it continues to provide food assistance to vulnerable countries based on mutual agreements on the quantity.

Rufino Hurtado will be the senior trade representative at the US Mission to the European Union in Brussels, the US Trade Representative’s Office reported yesterday. Mr. Rufino joined USTR …

Child Labor Report Issued The Labor Department released its annual report on the worst forms of child labor, spotlighting child labor abuses globally and reviewing progress made by some …

A bipartisan group of almost 60 Congressional lawmakers is calling on the Commerce Department to end the tomato suspension agreement with Mexico, charging that Mexican exporters continue to dump tomatoes into the US market. The letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) and Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif), urges the imposition of antidumping duties on tomatoes imported from Mexico.

Amidst tectonic shifts in the global electronic commerce and supply chains, China has issued a proposal on how electronic payments must be conducted in the ongoing Joint Statement Initiative on digital trade, WTD has learned. China’s restricted proposal INF/ECOM/80 circulated yesterday is apparently a revised negotiating textual proposal on e-payments and logistics services. It seeks to promote the adoption of international standards, interoperability, and transparency.

President Biden last week hosted a second summit with leaders of Pacific Islands nations as part of the Administration’s efforts to counter China’s influence in the region. The US-Pacific Partnership was formed last year as an alternative to China’s “economic coercion,” according to the 2022 leaders’ declaration. At this year’s summit, leaders focused on climate change, trade and investment, sustainable development, health and countering illegal fishing.

 Many developing countries, including the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific group, expressed sharp concerns over the draft fisheries subsidies negotiating text issued by Chair Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland, arguing that it is tilted toward preserving the overcapacity and overfishing subsidies availed by big subsidizers.

Members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent DHS Secretary Mayorkas a stern letter Friday, asserting that a Chinese firm is committing "blatant trade fraud that is having a catastrophic impact on American manufacturers."

Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned two commercial entities related to the conflict in Sudan, as well as five entities and two individuals involved in the procurement of sensitive parts for Iran’s one-way attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. Elsewhere, OFAC sanctioned several Sinaloa Cartel affiliates and fugitives affiliated with Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel. Responsible for a significant portion of the illicit fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the United States, the Sinaloa Cartel is one of the world’s most damaging transnational criminal organizations. Additionally, OFAC sanctioned the leader of the Clan del Golfo, one of Colombia’s largest criminal enterprises that controls most of the country’s cocaine cultivation, production, and transportation routes.

The U.S. is poised to indefinitely lift export restrictions on exports of semiconductor equipment to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix's China facilities. Business Korea reports  the. …

An Addendum to the 2021 Updated Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory calls attention to the China’s ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang and the evidence of widespread use of forced labor there. The addendum urges businesses and individuals to continue to undertake appropriate human rights due diligence measures to identify potential supply chain links to entities operating in Xinjiang, entities linked to Xinjiang (e.g., through the pairing program, Xinjiang supply chain inputs, or the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC)), entities included in the UFLPA Entity List, or entities using the labor of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, or members of other persecuted groups from Xinjiang.