The United Kingdom has delayed until July 1, 2022, post-Brexit border checks on safety and security that had been scheduled to begin in January, Brexit minister David Frost said in a Sept. 14 statement. However, full customs declarations and controls will continue with their original Jan. 1 release date. The July 1 date will apply to Phytosanitary Certificates, physical checks on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) goods at Border Control Posts, and Safety and Security declarations on imports. The pre-notification requirements of SPS goods has been extended from Oct. 1 to Jan. 1, the statement said, and the new Export Health Certificate requirements extended from Oct. 1 to July 1.
Three former U.S. intelligence community or military members -- Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke -- entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay more than $1.68 million to resolve export control violation charges, the Department of Justice said. The trio worked as senior managers at a United Arab Emirates-based company that carried out computer hacking operations to benefit the UAE government during 2016 to 2019, DOJ said. All three were told repeatedly that their work constituted a “defense service” under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, requiring a license from the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Nevertheless, all three continued their hacking without a license, court documents laid out.
The Census Bureau hopes to release its new online voluntary self-disclosure portal (see 2103100022) by the year's end or early January, said Kiesha Downs, chief of Census’ Foreign Trade Division’s regulations branch. Downs, speaking during the Commerce Department’s Sept. 14 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting, said Census has been overwhelmed lately by a large number voluntary disclosures -- partly because the branch has lost some staff (see 2106080058) -- and hopes the new portal will help.
The European Commission opened a consulting period on amendments to its Blocking Statute, publishing an impact assessment on the regulation. The commission has received responses from the Italian Banking Association; Spectaris, the German Industrial Association for Optics, Photonics, Analytical and Medical Technology; the Medical Engineering Industry Association; and two anonymous sources. The consulting period will run for 12 weeks from the beginning of August. The impact assessment originally said that the blocking statute should be changed due to the increasing complexity and proliferation of extraterritorial sanctions and the European Union's exposure to certain third countries (see 2108110014). The blocking regulations are meant to protect EU businesses from extraterritorial sanctions, including those imposed by the U.S., which are increasingly leading to global sanctions compliance issues in Europe.
The United Kingdom published a list of reference documents for importers and exporters to view all of the U.K.'s preferential tariffs and Rule of Origin for the agreements within The Customs Tariff (preferential trade arrangements and tariff quotas). It's a list of the agreements maintained after Brexit. The list contains 73 documents, two for each party to an agreement, plus three for the Eastern and Southern African States.
In a strategic meeting called a high-level economic dialogue, Mexico and the U.S. talked about ways to facilitate the movement of goods at the border and ways to use Mexico in a North American-centric semiconductor supply chain, officials said after the Sept. 9 meeting. Mexico could become a place for packaging and testing chips, Mexico's Economy Secretary Tatiana Clouthier said at a press conference at the Mexican Embassy.
A district court judge in Massachusetts sentenced Chinese national Shuren Qin to two years in prison for exporting hydrophones with anti-submarine applications to a Chinese military university on the Commerce Department's Entity List, in a Sept. 1 sentencing memorandum. Judge Denise Casper carried out the sentencing and also ruled that Qin will be placed on supervised release for two years following his prison sentence and will pay a fine of $20,000 (United States v. Shuren Qin, D.C. Mass. #18-10205).
The previous country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef triggered a dispute among the U.S., Mexico and Canada that the U.S. lost at the World Trade Organization (see 1512070017), leading to retaliatory tariffs, and ultimately, the end of mandatory COOL. Ranchers have repeatedly sought the return of COOL, as they dislike the fact that cattle raised in Canada but slaughtered in the U.S. are labeled as U.S. products. South Dakota's two senators, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., announced that they will introduce a new COOL bill next week that will require the U.S. trade representative consulting with the agriculture secretary to develop a new mandatory COOL regime that could withstand scrutiny at the WTO. The agency would have six months to develop the plan and six months to implement it, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said. If the USTR does not come up with a plan, an automatic mandatory COOL would begin for beef. “Transparency in labeling benefits both producers and consumers,” Thune said. “Unfortunately, the current beef labeling system in this country allows imported beef that is neither born nor raised in the United States, but simply finished here, to be labeled as a product of the USA. This process is unfair to cattle producers and misleading for consumers. When you see a ‘product of the USA’ label on the grocery store shelf, it should mean just that."
Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Ukraine have aligned themselves with the European Union's sanctions regime on Guinea-Bissau, the European Council said in a Sept. 8 news release. On Aug. 5, the EC dropped two individuals, Navy Cmdr. Bion Na Tchongo and Capt. Paulo Sunsai, from the sanctions regime. Both listings originally were made in 2012 (see 2108100012). The aligning countries will "ensure that their national policies conform to this Council Decision," the EC said.
India's Mumbai Sea Port, Tuticorin Sea Port and Vishakhapatnam Sea Port can now receive imports of genetically modified soymeal, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade said in a Sept. 3 notice updating an Aug. 24 notice. India recently greenlighted the import of the "crushed and de-oiled genetically modified soya cake," but only at the Nhava Sheva port and the Petrapole land border port (see 2108270010). All other conditions of the original notice continue to apply, including that the provision is in place until Oct. 31.