The U.S. shouldn’t scrap its Science and Technology Agreement (STA) with China when it expires later this month, and should instead update the deal to better address areas for cooperation around critical technologies, former U.S. officials and technology policy experts said this week. But they also acknowledged that continuing the agreement could be challenging, particularly because of rising tensions between the two sides along with a congressional push to restrict more American technology from being shared with Beijing.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is seeking comments on an information collection involving the U.S. Origin Health Certificate for exports of animals and animal products. The agency said export of "agricultural commodities, including animals and animal products, is a major business in the United States and contributes to a favorable balance of trade," and APHIS "maintains information regarding the import health requirements of other countries for animals and animal products exported from the" U.S. Comments are due Oct. 3.
While most shippers applauded the Federal Maritime Commission’s revised proposed rule on unreasonable carrier conduct, carriers urged the commission to again amend the wording, saying it unfairly favors exporters and stretches beyond the authority granted to the FMC by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. Several major carriers said the commission should narrow the rule’s proposed definition for “unreasonableness,” allow carriers to rely on “legitimate business factors” as a reason for why they may refuse cargo space, remove the rule's documented export policy requirement and revise other proposals they say disadvantage carriers.
Andrew Adams, the DOJ attorney at the head of Task Force KleptoCapture -- the interagency body charged with enforcing U.S. sanctions on Russia -- left the department, he said on his LinkedIn page. Adams will return to his role as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which he originally assumed in 2013. He was appointed to lead the task force in March of last year after leading the SDNY Attorney's Office's Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Bloomberg reported that Adams will be replaced by Michael Khoo and David Lim, both of whom have worked in the task force since its early days. DOJ didn't comment.
Canada's International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) reached a new tentative labor agreement days after ILWU members voted against the previous tentative deal, ILWU Canada and BCMEA announced July 30. BCMEA said both sides are again "recommending ratification of the collective agreement to the union’s membership and member employers."
Rebecca Dye of the Federal Maritime Commission proposed new sets of best practices for ocean carriers and marine terminal operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Port of New York and New Jersey, covering activities surrounding container returns, earliest return dates and container pickups.
The EU General Court in a pair of July 26 orders annulled the sanctions acts listing Viktor Pshonka, a former Ukrainian prosecutor general, and his son, Artem, a former Ukrainian lawmaker, according to an unofficial translation. The elder Pshonka was originally sanctioned in 2014 for embezzling Ukrainian public funds, according to the EU Sanctions blog. The blog noted that the court said the European Council failed to show that the Pshonkas' rights to judicial protection were respected by Ukrainian authorities during criminal proceedings on which the council relied.
The Bureau of Industry and Security this week renewed its temporary denial order for a Venezuela-based cargo airline after saying it continues to try to violate U.S. export restrictions and the terms of the TDO. BIS said Empresa de Transporte Aereocargo del Sur, also known as Aerocargo del Sur Transportation or Emtrasur, has demonstrated "continued disregard" for U.S. export controls.
The Bureau of Industry and Security will now require companies that report boycott requests to inform BIS of the “specific party who made the request,” Matthew Axelrod, the agency’s top export enforcement official, said in a July 26 policy memo to enforcement employees. Companies previously were only required to report to BIS that they received the boycott request and the “country from which the request originated,” the memo said. Information on the identity of the requester will allow BIS to “more easily investigate and hold accountable” parties engaging in a boycott.
Cambodia recently approved a new draft law to set rules of origin for exports and imports under the country’s preferential trade systems, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported July 21. The rules are meant to help identify the origins of Cambodian products for “quality assurance purposes and brand protection” and protect domestic from “the illegal practice of importing goods then reexporting them as Cambodian products,” HKTDC said.