The Bureau of Industry and Security added seven Chinese “supercomputing” entities to the Entity List for procuring U.S.-origin items in a way that harms U.S. national security and supports China’s military, BIS said in a final rule that takes effect today. The rule imposes a license requirement for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations, and BIS will impose a license review policy of presumption of denial. No license exceptions will be available.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued guidance April 5 clarifying that it generally won’t pursue sanctions against humanitarian-related transactions or exports to Syria as long as the items wouldn’t normally require an OFAC license. The guidance was issued about a week after the U.S. committed to providing more humanitarian aid to respond to the Syria crisis.
The Commerce Department should be careful not to place unilateral export restrictions on semiconductors and should invest heavily in domestic chip innovation, technology companies told the agency in comments due this week. But at least one think tank urged Commerce to pursue more strict controls and argued that decoupling from China along the semiconductor supply chain is inevitable.
India's Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs updated Section 46 of the Customs Act, making changes to customs clearance procedure for imports on March 29, according to a C.H. Robinson report. The update provides guidelines for importers on submitting an Import Bill of Entry, including an outline on the requirements for various modes of import and origin country. For instance, imports from Bangladesh, Maldives, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka must submit their Bill of Entry at the latest by the end of the day when the vehicle arrives in India. Goods from all other countries must submit their Bill of Entry the day before the vehicle arrives at the latest.
Many advocates for developing countries say a TRIPS (Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver is needed to accelerate access to vaccines, treatments and COVID-19 tests, but most speakers at an American Bar Association-convened panel said that countries already have the power to curtail pharmaceutical patents for a pandemic, and that technical knowledge and input shortages are a bigger barrier than patents.
Canada plans to revise import restrictions for certain shipments of U.S. pet food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service said April 1. The changes, which take effect April 13, will require pet food that is imported as “heat-treated” to “undergo temperature and time specific treatments based on the animal-origin ingredients,” USDA said. If the import doesn’t meet those requirements, the shipment must abide by Canada’s import conditions for “raw/minimally heat-treated pet food.” USDA added that Canada will no longer require import permits for raw and minimally heat-treated pet food after April 13.
President Joe Biden revoked an executive order that authorized sanctions against the International Criminal Court (see 2006110028), reversing a Trump administration decision that sparked strong opposition from allies and human rights advocates (see 2011030007 and 2010020030). The move lifted sanctions against ICC prosecutors and officials (see 2009020049), the State Department said April 2, adding that the measures were “inappropriate and ineffective.”
The U.S. is ceding its strategic and trade advantages in the Indo-Pacific to China, which is expanding its influence through technology exports and outbound technology investments, the Center for a New American Security said in a March 31 report. The Joe Biden administration can reverse the trend through closer cooperation with allies in the region, including Japan and India, which have been willing to deny certain Chinese investments and object to coercion attempts, CNAS said.
Nearly a quarter of small businesses in the United Kingdom have decided to stop exporting to the European Union due to Brexit costs and new paperwork, according to a March 29 survey by the Federation of Small Businesses. And 4% of small exporters already have decided to permanently stop selling to the EU following the new trade rules that took effect on Jan. 1, when Britain left the EU, while 11% of small exporters are at least considering completely halting their exports to the bloc. Importers are a slightly different story, with only 17% temporarily suspending purchases from the EU. The Brexit transition has been a logistics fiasco, with 70% of importers and exporters reporting having suffered shipment delays when moving goods around the EU in the first quarter, and 32% having lost goods in transit. To ease these costs, one in 10 exporters is considering establishing a presence in an EU country to ease the process, and more than half of small exporters and importers have sought professional advice to navigate customs, rules of origin and value-added tax obligations.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of March 26 (some may also be given separate headlines):