House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Earl Blumenauer said he thinks the House could be able to have a vote in the fall on the new NAFTA. Blumenauer, from Oregon and one of nine House Democrats who are tasked with negotiating changes to the deal with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, said he expects the group will meet with USTR "at least once a week." Speaking at a Washington International Trade Association event June 26, he joked that Lighthizer spends so much time meeting with House members and caucuses, "I think he travels the world just to get away from us." Lighthizer is on his way to Osaka, Japan, for the G-20 meeting. He met with the working group the afternoon before he left.
Canada needs to step up its meat export certification system, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said during a June 26 press conference. Asked about a temporary ban on Canadian meat, Shuang said that Chinese customs found "ractopamine residues in pork products exported from Canada to China." During a subsequent investigation, China found "the official veterinary health certificates for the batch of pork exported to China were counterfeit and the number of those forgery certificates was up to 188," he said. "These forged certificates were sent to the Chinese regulatory authorities through Canadian official certificate notification channel, which reflects that the Canadian meat export supervision system has obvious safety loopholes."
FedEx filed a lawsuit against the Commerce Department and the Bureau of Industry and Security for imposing export controls it says are “unconstitutional” and “impossible” to comply with, according to court records. The company also said BIS’s Entity List “imposes an overbroad, disproportionate burden on FedEx,” records show. The suit asks the court to stop Commerce from enforcing certain sections of the Export Administration Regulations on FedEx, to declare the EAR “unlawful” and to award FedEx any additional appropriate relief, including “costs and expenses.”
Thailand announced a 90-day ban on pig imports from Laos after Laos confirmed it is dealing with an outbreak of African swine fever, according to a June 22 report by Reuters, which cited an official Thailand government agency notice from June 21. The ban covers live pigs and pig carcasses, and follows a recent decision by China to also ban pigs from Laos, Reuters reported.
J.P. Morgan now offers an E-Customs Payment Solution meant to make it easier to make cross-border payments, the company said in an emailed June 20 news release. "Importers in China are required to provide supporting documents to their banks prior to making payments to overseas suppliers, a process that is often labor-intensive and time-consuming," the company said. "With the E-Customs Payment Solution, J.P. Morgan’s clients in China will only be required to send the payment instructions with linked customs declaration number. Using Application Programming Interface (API) technology, J.P. Morgan’s E-Customs Payment Solution will then retrieve the relevant customs declaration status in detail from the local authorities via the Shanghai International Trade Single Window in real time and process the payments automatically."
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added five Chinese entities to its Entity List, the latest escalation in the U.S. and China’s ongoing trade war. The move restricts the entities' ability to purchase certain U.S. products and will require licenses for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations with a review policy of presumption of denial. The entities are: Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit, Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology, Higon, Sugon and Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology. The Wuxi Jiangnan Institute is owned by owned by the Chinese government, Commerce said.
Walmart and its Brazilian subsidiary settled for $137 million after the Department of Justice said both violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, according to a June 20 press release. The subsidiary, WMT Brasilia S.a.r.l, pleaded guilty to the charges.
A Senate bill introduced June 13 with bipartisan support would require the Trump administration to submit reports to Congress on whether Hong Kong is following U.S. export control laws and sanctions. The requirement, part of a bill that would amend the Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, would order the Treasury, State and Commerce secretaries to send several House and Senate committees a report on whether Hong Kong has enforced U.S. export controls with respect to “sensitive dual-use items” and abided by both U.S. and United Nations sanctions. The administration would need to submit the reports within 180 days after the enactment of the bill, which was introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added five Chinese computing companies to its Entity List, requiring licenses for all items subject to the Export Administration Regulations with a review policy of presumption of denial. The entities are: Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit, Chengdu Haiguang Microelectronics Technology, Higon, Sugon and Wuxi Jiangnan Institute of Computing Technology.