The first ship to carry Ukrainian grain exports from the Black Sea left the port of Odessa Aug. 1, the White House said, about five months after Russia invaded Ukraine and halted the country’s agricultural shipments. The successful export was a direct result of an agreement between U.N., Russia, Ukraine and Turkey last month (see 2207250004) to start allowing safe passage of Ukrainian exports through the Black Sea, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control’s recent finding of a violation sent to Midfirst Bank can serve as useful insight into OFAC’s compliance expectations, various firms focusing on compliance said. The enforcement notice, which outlined several mistakes by the bank in its attempt to comply with U.S. sanctions, also represents a warning to companies with insufficient screening processes, the firms said.
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports again postponed a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers (see 2110280031), this time by one month, the two ports announced July 29. The ports had planned to begin imposing the fee in November 2021 but have postponed it each week since. The latest extension delays the effective date until Aug. 26. The ports said they will "reassess fee implementation after monitoring data over the next month."
The Federal Maritime Commission is making headway on implementing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 and is preparing two new rules that will further revise or clarify how its regulations apply to carrier and shipping practices.
CBP hopes to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to eventually mandate electronic export manifest (see 2207180041 and 2205060015) by the end of this year, said Jim Swanson, an agency official. The agency has written the regulations for ocean, air and rail manifest but is in the middle of a lengthy government review process before it can publish the NPRM in the Federal Register and officially request public comments, Swanson said.
The U.S. is stepping up efforts to boost liquefied natural gas exports to Europe as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on, Jose Fernandez, a senior State Department official, said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing this week. He said he recently met with several European countries that are asking to buy more U.S. LNG.
U.S. export controls on artificial intelligence may not be the right strategy to hinder Chinese progress in certain AI subfields, including machine learning, Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology said in a report this week. While the controls may seem “attractive in the abstract,” the report said most decoupling regimes are “imperfect and frequently act as a hindrance, rather than an absolute bar, to a rival’s technological progress.”
The Commerce Department is prioritizing work to strengthen its export controls and investment restrictions, particularly with allies, Commerce Deputy Secretary Don Graves said, speaking during a July 25 event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He said the U.S. is continuing to rethink the existing multilateral control regimes and believes the global sanctions response to Russia has set a precedent for how democracies could respond to similar aggression by other countries in the future.
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports again postponed by a week a new surcharge meant to incentivize the movement of dwelling containers (see 2110280031), the two ports announced July 22. The ports had planned to begin imposing the fee in November 2021 but have postponed it each week since. The latest extension delays the effective date until July 29.
India has substantially increased imports of Russian crude oil in the last few months and could start buying even more, said Reid l’Anson, a commodity economist with Kpler, during a July 22 webinar hosted by the Atlantic Council. India is on pace this month to buy 1 million Russian barrels per day, a significant surge from pre-invasion levels, l’Anson said.