L3 Harris Technologies reached a $13 million settlement with the State Department for violating the Arms Export Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, according to an order released Sept. 23 by the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. The violations by Harris Corporation, a technology and defense contractor, occurred before it officially merged in July with L3 Technologies, an aerospace and defense company.

CBP will eliminate penalties for minor violations of Census Bureau export filing requirements as part of its upcoming electronic export manifest rollout, said Jim Swanson, director of CBP’s Cargo and Security Controls Division.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Sept. 16-20 in case they were missed.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said tariffs on autos are not related to national security. When asked to respond to news reports that the U.S. and Japan could not finish a deal because the U.S. was not willing to promise to spare Japanese autos from those tariffs, he said, "The president ought to give that assurance and get this show on the road."

The promise of good news for farmers in the U.S.-Japan trade deal is oversold, five Democrats told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, as they complained in a letter about how the deal was negotiated without keeping Congress in the loop.

The recently released 2020 incoterms rules (see 1909100056) are easier to use and understand compared to previous versions, one of several significant changes to the International Chamber of Commerce’s latest revisions, said Frank Reynolds, the U.S. delegate for the ICC’s 2020 drafting group. The ICC said the new incoterms edition is “more accessible” and includes “more detailed explanatory notes with enhanced graphics” to clarify the responsibilities of exporters and importers. It also includes an “extensive introduction … that anybody can understand,” Reynolds said in an interview.

It may only be a matter of time before countries create a trade payment system to avoid U.S. sanctions, said David Mortlock, a trade lawyer and senior fellow with the Atlantic Council.

U.S. and India face significant trade tensions that won't be easily solved, a trade expert said, adding that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken more steps to close off trade than the country’s past two leaders. “I get asked, is India the next [U.S.] target?” said Rick Rossow, a senior adviser for U.S.-India policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Those of us that are in the trenches, there are already bombs dropping. There are already bullets whizzing by. It's pretty serious.”

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., who leads the working group that aims to win changes to the NAFTA rewrite to make it more palatable to Democrats, said that "it's time to pick up the intensity of the negotiations" with the administration. "I would prefer now that the pace pick up," he said in an interview on Sept. 19, the day before the working group was to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for the first time since they received a counterproposal from him.

Legislative discussions continue for how to shape legislation in order to regain control of trade policy from the Trump administration as the legislative branch is further pushed to the sidelines, a former senior U.S. trade negotiator said. Barbara Weisel, former assistant U.S. trade representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said Congress is beginning to question how it can retake its constitutionally granted powers over trade, which have been overtaken by the Trump administration and its preference for bilateral negotiations. “One has to believe there are many members of Congress now who are debating and quietly discussing how they are going to adjust this issue,” Weisel said during a Sept. 17 event at the Brookings Institution in Washington, focused on the "America First" trade policy with regard to Japan and Taiwan. “And I think it’s about time.”