The Census Bureau plans to cancel its Advanced Export Information pilot program (see 14013015) because it was “unable to conduct sufficient analysis and evaluation” of the program due to a lack of “adequate participation,” the agency said in a notice this week. The program, first announced in 2014, will end Dec. 13. On and after Dec. 13, the remaining pilot program participants should no longer report Electronic Export Information through the AEI pilot program and instead should report EEI to the Automated Export System “in accordance with the Foreign Trade Regulations,” Census said.
The Commerce Department is close to completing its work on a national export strategy, said Grant Harris, the International Trade Administration's assistant secretary for industry and analysis. Harris said he hopes the administration releases the strategy, which will outline efforts to increase foreign market access for U.S. manufacturers, farmers, carmakers and other industries (see 2104220033), in the “coming months.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai drew a distinction between 35% tariffs on Russian goods, which she said are designed to punish that country's war of aggression, and 25% (or 7.5%) tariffs on Chinese goods, which she said are not punishing tariffs.
African Growth and Opportunity Act benefits for Kenya need to continue as any trade partnership is formed, commenters said, especially the third-country fabric rule of origin.
Although President Joe Biden’s recent executive order on foreign direct investment isn’t expected to significantly change review outcomes, it sends a clear signal to industry about the U.S.’s FDI priorities and could help companies better understand whether they should submit a voluntary filing, law firms said this month. One firm said the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. may use the order as further reason to reach out to businesses about non-notified transactions.
Brazilian airline GOL Linhas Aereas Inteligentes will pay over $41 million to settle criminal and civil investigations by DOJ, SEC and Brazilian authorities on bribery charges, DOJ announced in a Sept. 15 news release. DOJ and the airline entered into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement over charges that the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; the airline agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $17 million.
China imposed inspection and quarantine requirements on imports of soybean protein from Brazil, the General Administration of Customs announced, according to an unofficial translation. Soybean protein refers to the low-temperature soybean meal made by separating oil from soybeans grown in Brazil, and the product obtained after removing non-protein components, with a protein content of not less than 65%. The requirements say soybean protein shipped to China should come from approved processing enterprises, which should set up good hazard analysis and critical control point systems, production quality management standards and traceability management systems, and should operate effectively.
Chinese trade barriers to imported food cause substantial price differences between the amount Chinese buyers pay for those U.S. commodities -- including the standard tariffs -- and the national average cost of those goods, a study from USDA's Economic Research Service estimated.
The Federal Maritime Commission has made publicly available on its website its FY 2019 Service Contract Inventory Analysis, the agency said in a Federal Register notice. FMC said the analysis includes “Scope, Methodology, Findings, Actions Taken or Planned, and Accountable Officials.”
The recent surge in U.S. sanctions and export controls on Russia is causing resource strains for compliance teams, KPMG lawyers said during a webinar last week. Constantly expanding restricted party lists, as well as due diligence requirements under the Commerce Department’s military end-user rules, have become increasingly time-consuming and expensive to comply with, the lawyers said.