Although the Senate Finance Committee will still have a mock markup on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, it will happen after the implementing bill has been sent to Congress, so it will be more “mock” than in past deals. The reason the process of Congress weighing in on a trade deal is a mock markup is that under fast track, or Trade Promotion Authority, Congress cannot amend the deals. But typically, the administration sends up a draft implementing bill, and then does incorporate at least some of Congress's suggestions on language before sending the final implementing bill.
The Commerce Department is considering a host of expanded restrictions on foreign shipments to Huawei containing U.S. technology, said Rich Ashooh, Commerce’s assistant secretary for export administration. The agency is discussing expanding the Direct Product Rule -- which subjects certain foreign-made products containing U.S. technology to U.S. regulations -- and a broadened de minimis rule, Ashooh said during a Dec. 10 Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee meeting. Ashooh’s comments confirmed details in a Nov. 29 Reuters report that said the U.S. was discussing ways to restrict more foreign exports to Huawei (see 1912040014).
The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade on Dec. 5 issued updated guidance on 19 open general export licenses. The guidance documents cover OGELs for chemicals, software and technology for military goods for individual use, dual-use items for oil and gas exploration, military surplus vehicles, goods for deployed U.K. forces, military goods for demonstration, historic military goods, military goods exported for repair or replacement under warranty, information security items, low value shipments, military goods exported for exhibition, dual-use goods exported for repair or replacement under warranty, category C goods, cryptographic development, dual-use goods exported after repair or replacement under warranty, technology for dual use items, small arms and light weapons, PCBs and components for dual use items, and OGEL X.
Chubb Limited, a Swiss holding company, was fined about $65,000 for more than 20,000 violations of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in an enforcement notice. The violations were the responsibility of ACE Limited -- an insurance and reinsurance service provider with locations in Switzerland, U.S. and Britain -- which merged with Chubb Corp. in 2016 to form Chubb Limited.
Huawei is urging suppliers to move operations offshore to avoid U.S. sanctions and export controls, which would violate U.S. law, according to a Dec. 3 Reuters report. The Chinese technology giant has been “openly advocating” for companies to escape the jurisdiction of U.S. controls so sales can continue, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told Reuters. “Anybody who does move the product out specifically to avoid the sanction ... that’s a violation of U.S. law,” Ross said. “So here you have Huawei encouraging American suppliers to violate the law.”
In the Nov. 25 - Dec. 2 editions of the Official Journal of the European Union the following trade-related notices were posted:
As the European Union prepares revised regulations of its dual-use export controls (see 1906050039), EU industries are “divided” over whether human rights violations should be an “explicit justification” for export controls, according to a briefing of the EU review released Nov. 26. The 11-page briefing, released by the European Parliament, details how the controls would be changed, including impacts on export controls of surveillance technology, a revamp of the EU’s “licensing architecture” and a focus on terrorism and human rights.
Those who advise NAFTA stakeholders say that it looks like a factory-level inspection regime will be part of what Democrats get in their edits to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but how disruptive that will be for businesses is completely cloudy. Kellie Meiman Hock, a managing partner at McLarty Associates, said she thinks there are ways the inspections could be done that would not make Mexico feel like American government officials are deciding whether Mexican labor laws are being followed. Hock said the two governments could select inspectors who travel together, or it could be a coalition of non-governmental organizations, as was mobilized after more than 1,000 textile workers died in a factory collapse in Bangladesh.
The Department of Commerce published its fall 2019 regulatory agenda for the Bureau of Industry and Security. The agenda includes a new mention of its intent to potentially control certain additive manufacturing equipment, or 3D printing, used in “energetic materials” as part of BIS’s effort to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 1911210051). The notice of proposed rulemaking aims to gather feedback from industries while “discussions are ongoing” at the Wassenaar Arrangement. BIS said it aims to issue the proposed rule in November.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a resolution to the negotiations between the Democrats in the working group and the Trump administration on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is “imminent," and that she believes it can be a template for future trade agreements. Pelosi, D-Calif., who was speaking at her weekly press conference on Nov. 14, suggested that the AFL-CIO would not argue against a "yes" vote for the NAFTA rewrite. "I think we'll see what the implementation is, and the enforcement is, and I think it will be a value that is shared by our friends in labor as well as the Democrats in Congress," she said.