US Trade Representative Katherine Tai defended the Administration trade policy yesterday against criticisms that the White House is failing to open new markets by eschewing traditional comprehensive free trade agreements. Instead, the Administration’s focus on a worker-centered trade policy and investment in advanced manufacturing and infrastructure to create new jobs is a better fit for today’s world, Ms. Tai told the audience at the American University Washington College of Law.

Microsoft has agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle potential civil liability relating to exporting services or software to comprehensively sanctioned jurisdictions and Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) in violation of OFAC's Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Ukraine-/Russia-Related sanctions programs.

International trade growth is expected to decelerate to 1.7 percent in 2023 from 2.7 percent in the last year due to multiple factors ranging from the war in Ukraine, continued high inflation, ultra-conservative monetary policies and financial market uncertainty, according to the World Trade Organization’s global trade outlook report released Wednesday.

The United States and Japan have struck a trade deal on critical minerals used in the production of electric vehicle batteries.  The agreement is meant to reduce both countries’ dependence on countries like China for critical minerals, senior Administration officials told reporters. The Treasury Department published proposed content rules for the critical minerals content required for eligibility for the electric vehicle tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced a commitment by the United States and more than twenty foreign governments to enhance beneficial ownership transparency.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Polite clarified the Department's new  Corporate Enforcement Policy at the Global Investigations Review DC Spring Conference, Washington, DC, March 23.

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee held a marathon open session Tuesday, with a particular emphasis on the microelectronics supply chain.

Next up, a team from the Strategic Radiation Hardened Electronics Council discussed collaborative efforts across agencies and industry to ensure survivable electronics, terrestrial and in space.

Evan Broderick Acting Executive Director of the Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS) program at BIS discussed the OICTS, a rapidly growing enforcement activity that set up shop last March.

“The program started with the 2019 Order 13873. that is the Supply Chain EO as it's commonly referred to. It is essentially said that the secretary of commerce can prohibit or mitigate ICTS transactions: information and communications technology transactions that used data in transferred from and linked to a foreign adversary."

Commerce released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for the guardrails intended to ensure technology and innovation funded by the CHIPS and Science Act is not used for malign purposes by adversaries.

The International Trade Commission released its comprehensive review of the economic impact of the 2018 tariff action protecting American Steel and Aluminum and those penalizing importers of Chinese goods. 

The tariffs were based on national security investigations pursuant to section 232 on steel and aluminum, and a section 301 investigation concerning China’s "acts, policies, and practices related to technology transfer, intellectual property, and innovation."

The United States has joined the World Trade Organization’s Informal Dialogue on Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade, where members are looking at next year’s 13th Ministerial Conference as an opportunity for the WTO to deliver outcomes to reduce plastics pollution and address environmental concerns, according to participants in the dialogue.

President Biden’s $6.9 trillion fiscal year 2024 budget request puts an emphasis throughout on out-competing China by increasing investments in domestic manufacturing and infrastructure, while maintaining a strong US presence in the Asia Pacific.

“China is the United States’ only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it,” according to the President’s introduction to his budget.

Our friends at Sandler Travis & Rosenberg report CBP is now detaining PVC products such as vinyl flooring under the UFLPA and asking importers to trace these items back to their originating chemicals such as chlorine, carbon, and ethylene. 

While the UFLPA specifies tomatoes, cotton and polysilicon as high‑priority sectors for UFLPA enforcement, according to detention notices CBP issues with regard to potentially violative goods, PVC has been added as a sector of concern after aluminum was added in October 2022.

Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod  reviewed his team's initiatives in the Research Community in a March 8th speech to the Academic Security and Counter Exploitation Program’s Seventh Annual Seminar. 

The first hearing held by the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party capped a day of activity by House lawmakers focused on China, including approval of a raft of China-focused bills by the Financial Services and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Signaling a redoubled focus on countries providing conduits to evade western sanctions, Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security, the Department of Justice and Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, issued a Tri-Seal Compliance Note to …

Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Enforcement Matt Axelrod spoke to the 12th Annual Forum on U.S. Export & Re-export Compliance for Canadian Operations Jan 31 in Totonto.