Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for March 23-27 in case you missed them.

The European Union will suspend certain import duties and customs penalties, and is “strongly” encouraging traders to only apply for “essential customs declarations,” due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission said in a March 30 guidance. In the guidance, the EU presented measures intended to ease burdens for European customs agents, postal operators and couriers, who are “struggling to cope” with trade operations, especially the large number of imported e-commerce goods. The measures also ease time pressures on customs officials and industry by extending deadlines for approving customs declarations.

The Trump administration should be doing more to restrict sales of emerging technologies to China, lawmakers said in interviews earlier this month. Senators commended the administration for increasing foreign direct investment restrictions (see 2002260042) and going further than previous administrations in confronting China’s unfair trade practices, but said they will continue pushing for tighter restrictions.

The deadline for customs payments to the Canada Border Services Agency will be extended due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the agency said in bulletin on March 27. “The timeframe for all payments due to the Agency (duties and taxes on regular imports, re-assessments, penalties, etc) is extended to June 30, 2020,” it said. “This also includes charges on the statement of account of March due on April 1. The CBSA will change the due date automatically, there is no need for companies to apply for the extension.”

The COVID-19 pandemic may lead to an increase in electronic trade documentation as both governments and industries are increasingly forced to communicate online, said Kevin Shakespeare, director of stakeholder engagement at the Institute of Export and International Trade. Although there has already been a global shift toward online customs and trade procedures, the coronavirus spread may cause that process to speed up, Shakespeare said during a March 26 webinar hosted by the institute.

Trade restrictions created as result of the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis will change trade years from now and may lead to fewer international shipments in the medical arena, panelists said on a webinar March 26 hosted by the Washington International Trade Association.

The COVID-19 pandemic may hinder the United Kingdom and the European Union from striking a deal before the Brexit transition period ends in December, potentially creating export control confusion for companies, according to a trade lawyer. The U.K. has formed sanctions regimes for its official departure from the EU, but the two sides have not made much progress on export control regulations, which could have substantial impacts on supply chains, said Ross Denton, an export control lawyer with Baker McKenzie.

European Union countries should closely monitor attempts to acquire European medical goods and technology through foreign direct investment and should increase investment screening tools, the European Commission said March 25. The EU’s “openness to foreign investment” needs to be “balanced by appropriate screening tools … now more than ever,” the commission said in guidelines to EU member states. The commission urged member states to be “vigilant” and “use all tools available … to avoid that the current crisis leads to a loss of critical assets and technology.”

A Georgia congressman wrote to the secretary of state, asking for a temporary export ban on medical supplies needed for coronavirus COVID-19 response. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., said on March 24 that the Northeast Georgia Health System tried to order high-speed testing equipment, and the U.S. company producing it said it is not taking orders from new customers because it has a surge in orders from Europe.

Countries will more strictly review transactions involving foreign direct investment as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, especially the U.S., which could increase scrutiny and export controls in the biotechnology sector, trade lawyers said. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. may increase reviews of transactions involving health care technology to keep critical virus-fighting resources in the U.S., said Aimen Mir, a trade lawyer with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Mir, who also formerly served as the Treasury Department’s deputy assistant secretary for investment security, said the pandemic will also cause CFIUS and other agencies to increasingly look to prevent transfers of pathogen-related technologies and to maintain technology leadership in the biotechnology sector.