The Federal Maritime Commission needs more employees and funding to investigate and penalize violators of shipping laws, especially for costly cases that move to U.S. courts, the commission’s enforcement division director told the FMC this week. Commissioners also said the FMC is closely scrutinizing ocean carriers and terminal operators accused of unfair surcharge practices stemming from the recent labor strikes at U.S. East and Gulf coast port terminals.
The Federal Maritime Commission’s enforcement arm is investigating two cases involving potentially unlawful or unfair maritime shipping practices, including one that hasn’t yet been made public, said John Crews, director of the FMC’s Bureau of Enforcement, Investigations and Compliance.
New export controls over U.S. persons’ support for certain foreign military, intelligence and security services activities would place too much strain on both the government and industry compliance departments, disadvantage American exporters compared with their foreign competitors, and may provide no clear benefit to U.S. national security, companies and trade groups told the Bureau of Industry and Security.
An updated maritime industry advisory issued this week by the group of countries implementing the price cap on Russian oil includes new compliance recommendations, including ways to improve due diligence around tanker sales and tips to avoid deals with sanctioned counterparties.
China released new dual-use export control regulations Oct. 19, including details about its export licensing system, how Beijing will verify end-users of export-controlled items, how the rules may apply outside the country, and a method for adding restricted foreign importers, end-users and others who violate Chinese export controls to a new “control list.”
The Bureau of Industry and Security will add 26 companies and people to the Entity List after the agency said they violated U.S. export controls -- including by supplying sensitive items to China, Iran, Pakistan or Russia -- or failed to comply with U.S. end-use checks.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will soon remove Sandvine Inc., a Canada-headquartered technology software company, from the Entity List after BIS said it took “significant steps” to improve its compliance controls and stop its technology from being used for human rights breaches.
Canada is studying several policy and legislative options to strengthen its forced labor enforcement, including one that could establish new import traceability requirements for certain goods and another that could require importers to pay all fees associated with imports detained for forced labor.
Both a potential Kamala Harris and a potential Donald Trump administration are likely to continue the U.S. government’s increasing focus on sanctions and export control enforcement, even if their approaches to specific trade measures may differ, such as tariffs against China or sanctions against Russia, said Adam Smith, a Gibson Dunn lawyer.
A set of new rules released last week by the Commerce and State departments will reduce licensing requirements for exports of certain space-related items to a range of U.S. trading partners and propose to transfer export control jurisdiction over other space-related defense items from the State Department to the Commerce Department, lowering trade barriers faced by the commercial space industry for years.