Bridget McGovern, former assistant secretary for trade and economic security at DHS, joined Squire Patton as a partner in the public policy practice, the firm announced. McGovern will focus on national security and trade issues, including reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. She worked for over two years at DHS, where she served as an agency representative to CFIUS and helped implement the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List.
Jacob Kopnick
Jacob Kopnick, Associate Editor, is a reporter for Trade Law Daily and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and International Trade Today. He joined the Warren Communications News team in early 2021 covering a wide range of topics including trade-related court cases and export issues in Europe and Asia. Jacob's background is in trade policy, having spent time with both CSIS and USTR researching international trade and its complexities. Jacob is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Public Policy.
Kristina Puzyreva, a Russian and Canadian national, pleaded guilty on Feb. 12 to conspiracy to commit money laundering for her role in a scheme to export unnamed aerial vehicle parts, guided missile system components and other weapons to sanctioned Russian entities, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced. She faces up to 20 years in prison.
The U.K. on Feb. 12 added four Israeli citizens to its Global Human Rights sanctions regime. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation added Zvi Bar Yosef, Ely Federman, Yinon Levy and Moshe Sharvit for committing human rights abuses against Palestinian individuals in the West Bank.
Indonesia requested dispute consultations at the World Trade Organization on Feb. 12 regarding the EU's antidumping duties on fatty acids from Indonesia, the WTO announced. Indonesia said the duties violate the WTO's Anti-Dumping Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The request formally starts the dispute and sets up both parties to start a 60-day consultation period. Should consultations prove unsuccessful, "the complainant may request adjudication by a panel," the WTO said. The dispute concerns fatty acids, which are used in a "variety of consumer products as well as industrial lubricants."
The European Commission launched an investigation on whether safeguard duties on certain steel products should be extended beyond June 30, the Directorate-General for Trade announced. Under World Trade Organization rules, the commission will be able to extend the duties for only another two years. The rules allow safeguard measures for a maximum of eight years, which in this instance would be June 30, 2026.
The EU General Court on Feb. 7 dismissed sanctions removal applications from Russians Alisher Usmanov and Igor Shuvalov, according to an unofficial translation.
For Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., the future of U.S. trade policy is to make climate a trade policy priority, work with global allies to set digital trade standards and deepen the U.S. trading relationship with the global south.
DOJ this week announced charges involving two illegal technology transfer schemes, which were meant to benefit the Chinese and Iranian governments.
Cyprus is working to establish a "National Sanctions Implementation Unit" by the end of 2024 after a project manager and a group of experts were appointed to help set up the agency, the Ministry of Finance announced Feb. 5, according to an unofficial translation. The new enforcement body will seek to enforce sanctions laws and boost the existing legislative framework.
U.S. priorities during the World Trade Organization's upcoming 13th Ministerial Conference should center on extending the moratorium on e-commerce duties and advancing the second wave of talks on curbing harmful fisheries subsidies, witnesses said at a Feb. 7 hearing of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade.