House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) led a bipartisan delegation of House members to Seoul, South Korea where they participated in bilateral meetings held by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and other prominent Korean government officials focused on U.S.-Korea economic relations.   The twenty-person delegation visited Korea on the first leg of its trip to four East Asian countries. In Cambodia Pan Sorasak, Minister of Commerce, met on August 2 with the lawmakers.

The State Department has published an interim measure to streamline defense trade of U.S. origin items while the administration pursues legislative changes. The AUKUS pact, a defense agreement among Australia, the United States, and Britain, was signed in 2021 and involves $368 billion worth of investments.

The Department of the Treasury, as Chair of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), released its Annual Report to Congress for calendar year 2022. The Committee’s workload remained high with a record number of filed transactions based on the expanded jurisdiction provided by the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), mandatory filings in certain instances, and more sophisticated processes for identifying non-notified transactions.

By an overwhelming vote of 91 to 6 the Senate approved an amendment to the defense reauthorization bill that for the first time would impose notification requirements on US cutting edge technology outbound investments to China and other “countries of concern.” The notification requirement would apply to artificial intelligence, quantum industries, advanced semiconductors and micro-electronics, hypersonics, satellite-based communications and networked laser scanning systems with dual-use applications.

The Administration is not operating on a timetable for releasing highly-anticipated new export control rules on cutting-edge technology, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday. The focus instead is on getting the final rules right, so that US national security is protected but companies are not prevented from selling readily-available technology, she said at a program sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute.

OFAC has released the first episode of its “Introduction to OFAC” web series, a series of short videos created to provide viewers with a high-level introduction on the fundamentals of OFAC and sanctions implementation. The first episode introduces viewers to OFAC and its place within the U.S. government, as well as its history, mission, and relationship with the public. 

A bipartisian group of lawmakers Tuesday introduced the Inter-American Development Bank Transparency Act. which would require the Treasury Department to inform Congress of PRC influence at the …

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., requested in a new letter that Lear Co., the nation’s largest car seat manufacturer, explain how it oversees leather supply chains in Brazil to prevent the illegal importation of goods made with forced labor or deforestation. The letter comes as part of Wyden’s ongoing inquiry into forced labor in auto supply chains. Wyden has written to major automakers and their tier 1 suppliers regarding evidence of parts made with forced labor in Xinjiang, China, as part of his investigation into the effectiveness of customs enforcement regarding forced labor. In June, he held a Finance Committee hearing investigating how cattle supply chains contribute to Amazon deforestation. 

Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) President and Chair Reta Jo Lewis traveled to Luanda, Angola, where she met with government leaders, private sector companies and external stakeholders to highlight EXIM's activity in the region.   She also spoke at the Luanda International Trade Fair. In June, Exim approved a direct loan for more than $900 million to the Ministry of Energy and Water of the Republic of Angola to support the construction of two photovoltaic solar energy power plants.

In a sternly worded letter to CEO Jim Farley of the Ford Motor Company, two of the House’s leading China Hawks lashed into the company’s plans to license Chinese technology for electric vehicle battery production, calling for access to Ford’s business records and correspondence related to the deal.

Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control designated dozens of entities as Washington continues to apply economic pressure on Moscow for it's invation of Ukraine. The July 20 actions address munitions, metals & mining, finance, energy and aerospace technology interests.

The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), declared the enforcement of financial penalties against two defense companies,  resolving alleged infractions of the antiboycott regulations of the …

The Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) announced their approval of a 400 million dollar credit guarantee for the trading book of a Swiss commodity trader. Financial Institution Buyer Credit (FIBC) policies backstop credit lines for Geneva – based Trafigura to broker natural gas purchases from the US “primarily to European Buyers,” according to the EXIM announcement.

Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP, and Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) today unveiled a key piece of legislation that aims to broaden the …

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the U.S. National Intelligence Director (ODNI) have declared the fulfillment of their commitments under President Joe Biden's Executive Order (EO) 14086 regarding the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Since 2020, when the European Court of Justice nullified the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield agreement due to concerns about U.S. government surveillance activities, the U.S. and the EU have been on a quest to establish a new data flow mechanism. This decision unsettled transatlantic data transfers and necessitated a resolution that would ensure enhanced privacy and data protection for EU data subjects. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a press statement that the DOJ's designation of EU member states, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, as "qualifying states." These designations allow citizens of these nations to seek redress through the proposed Data Protection Review Court, offering enhanced U.S. privacy protections in the process.

The operating practice of trade compliance is bifurcated into customer due diligence (CDD) and managing import and export controls.   CDD involves vetting customers and suppliers using …

Along with sanctions on miners affiliated with th Wagner Group, the U.S. released a multiagency advisory on compliance concerns associated with the Gold Trade. Jointly issued by six Departments - State, Treasury, Commerce, Homeland Security, Labor, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) the advisory had been delayed several days, along with the Wagner Sanctions, to allow the mutiny in Russia to sort itself out.

Friday, the EU Council announced the adoption of the eleventh comprehensive package of sanctions, imposing restrictive measures on an additional 71 individuals and 33 entities identified as …

An interim report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party released yesterday highlights the practices of Chinese online retail platforms Temu and Shein – including avoiding tariffs and failing to prevent forced labor sourcing.

The United States has asked Mexico to look into whether workers at a Mexican denim factory are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The request announced …