India's Director General of Foreign Trade will allow The Plastic Export Promotion Council to authorize Certificates of Origin (Non-Preferential), the agency announced in a March 17 trade notice.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of March 17 (some may also be given separate headlines):
The Office of Foreign Assets Control fined a Cleveland process controls and instrument manufacturer more than $215,000 for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, OFAC said in a March 15 notice. The company, UniControl, Inc., exported goods to European companies despite knowing they would ultimately be sent to Iran, OFAC said. The agency said the company failed to “act on multiple apparent warning signs.”
Following a review of the European Union's sanctions regime on nine individuals in Egypt, the European Council removed their names from its sanctions list, the EC announced on March 12. The individuals originally were added to the sanctions' regime for their roles in the misappropriation of Egyptian state funds, the EC said. Having been found that their actions warranted their placement on the sanctions list by the council in 2011, the individuals were subject to an asset freeze and forbidden from doing business with EU nationals and legal entities. Following the most recent review, the EC determined the sanctions regime on these nine individuals had served its purpose.
Fujairah International Oil & Gas Corporation, an oil company owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, the ruler of the emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates, claims that it owns oil seized by the U.S. Filing their ownership claim in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Fujairah said it purchased the oil from an undisclosed Iraqi supplier and sold it to an unidentified Chinese buyer, where the oil was heading when it was seized. The Department of Justice alleges Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and IRGC-Qods Force, both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, schemed to deliver the oil to a customer abroad and that the origins of the oil were disguised using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents, and other means to trick the owners of the Liberia-flagged Achilleas -- the ship the oil was seized on -- into transporting the oil (see 2102030018).
Nine Republican senators on March 10 reintroduced a bill that they said will make the U.S. more competitive with China and counter illegal Chinese trade practices. The bill, originally introduced last year, would “tackle” Chinese efforts to “distort global markets” and allow U.S. technology companies to better compete with China by “increasing technology collaboration with allies and partners.” The bill also includes several policy statements about export controls and sanctions, and stresses that the U.S. should be “crafting multilateral export control measures” with allies and with multilateral control groups, including the Wassenaar Arrangement. Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who helped craft the bill, said the legislation may have bipartisan support. “We are committed to working with our Democratic colleagues to ensure the United States and its allies and partners are prepared for this competition,” he said.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of March 10 (some may also be given separate headlines):
The Bureau of Industry and Security denied export privileges for a German aircraft maintenance company and fined it more than $50,000 for procuring U.S. parts and components for a sanctioned Iranian airline. MSI Aircraft Maintenance Services International GmbH & Co. worked with Iran’s Mahan Airways (see 2011270001) to illegally export U.S.-origin reservoir and valve assemblies, which were controlled under the Export Administration Regulations, BIS said in a March 5 order. The agency said it will waive MSI’s three-year export denial if the company pays the fine, cooperates with BIS during a three-year probationary period and doesn’t commit any more EAR violations.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of March 5 (some may also be given separate headlines):
Following a package of measures meant to flush out ties between United Kingdom businesses and forced labor practices in China's Xinjiang region, compliance efforts have ramped up to ensure that supply chains are free of any association with the practice imposed on the region's Uighur Muslim population. In October 2020 and January of this year, U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced a suite of four policies meant to eliminate forced labor from supply chains (see 2101120056). The policies include business guidance to U.K. companies with links to Xinjiang; strengthening the Modern Slavery Act (MSA), that includes levying fines for non-compliance; transparency requirements for government procurement; and a review of export controls to Xinjiang.