A letter from 41 trade groups -- including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the U.S.-China Business Council, and others in information technology, apparel, agriculture and pharmaceuticals -- asks both Chinese and American lead negotiators to “redouble efforts to implement all aspects of the Agreement, including purchases of U.S. manufactured goods, energy products, services, and agricultural goods, where implementation seems to be lagging.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Aluminum Association reacted with dismay June 23 to a Bloomberg report that the U.S. could re-impose 10% tariffs on Canadian aluminum on July 1, because of an alleged surge in imports since tariffs were lifted. The U.S. trade representative told senators last week that he is in consultations with Canada on the issue.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for June 15-19 in case you missed them.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security announced a new set of export controls on certain cultivation chambers and chemicals (see 2005150048). The controls, agreed to by the Australia Group during a February meeting, restrict the sales of certain “rigid-walled, single-use” cultivation chambers and precursor chemicals, along with the “Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus,” or MERS. The final rule, which takes effect June 17, falls under BIS's effort to restrict sales of emerging technologies (see 2005190052), as mandated by the 2018 Export Control Reform Act, the agency said.

The International Chamber of Commerce recently issued an addendum to its guidance on the use of sanctions clauses, urging banks to refrain from using or accepting sanctions clauses that impose extra restrictions on a deal. Broad sanctions clauses “defeat the independence principle in letters of credit and demand guarantees, the exclusively documentary nature of the instrument, and create uncertainty,” the ICC said in the May addendum.

China reportedly ordered its state-controlled companies to stop buying certain U.S. agricultural products after the U.S. certified last week that Hong Kong no longer qualifies for special trade treatment. The decision also came after President Donald Trump said the U.S. will sanction Chinese officials, increase export controls on dual-use technologies, and end the special customs territory in response to Beijing’s so-called national security law (see 2005290047), which the State Department said threatens Hong Kong’s autonomy (see 2005270026).

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for May 18-22 in case you missed them.

The top executive for customs policy at UPS said the consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic will be that companies “reassess everything” about supply chains. Norm Schenk, executive vice president for customs policy, was on a panel that included the director of corporate customs for a major logistics provider, the head of customs for a major automaker, and the executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority. The panelists, hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on May 19, agreed that even after the crisis is over, trading will not return to how it was.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security is preparing to issue several additional export controls over emerging technologies and is finalizing a long-awaited advance notice of proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, BIS officials said. The emerging technology controls will be released “within the next few weeks,” an official said, while the foundational technology ANPRM will soon be sent for interagency review and for feedback by technical advisory committee members before being publicly released.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs began an interagency review for a final rule from the Commerce Department that will implement certain export control decisions from the 2020 Australia Group meeting. The rule, received by OIRA May 5, will add certain “rigid-walled, single-use cultivation chambers and precursor chemicals” to the Commerce Control List. The rule would also amend the Export Administration Regulations by revising biological and chemical controls on the CCL.