Shuttering the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body threatens the ability of countries to settle trade disputes, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warns.

Americans for Free Trade spokesman Jonathan Gold said the White House needs to “finalize a deal with China to end the trade war and remove all tariffs.”

Rep. Richard Neal, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, calls USMCA “a triumph for workers across America.”

Longtime Capitol Hill legislative counsel and policy consultant completes the five-person commission.

The agreement is hailed as “a critical step forward in our economic and security partnership.”

Office of Foreign Assets Control adds Try Pheap and 11 of his companies to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

The Commerce Department is expected to propose new rules that lower the U.S. content threshold for licensable reexports and when foreign-made products are subject to U.S. export controls.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said excluding ocean cargo from the Section 321 pilot program reduced “a substantial number of relevant shipments of potential participants.”

Agriculture shippers and forwarders work with CBP and Census in an effort to eliminate $5,000-$10,000 penalties for minor export data filing errors in the Automated Export System.

While Customs and Border Protection’s Automated Commercial Environment has automated much of the cross-border trade process, the U.S. export manifest process remains paper intensive and error prone.

A Solar Energy Industries Association study says U.S. tariffs on crystalline silicon solar cells have pushed solar panel prices in the U.S. 43-57% above the global average price.

The Treasury Department agency is closely monitoring vessel name changes used by Venezuelan and Cuban authorities to sidestep U.S. trade sanctions.

An Office of the U.S. Trade Representative investigation concludes that a French tax on digital services discriminates against U.S. companies, such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.

A U.S. man living in Singapore illegally presented technical information at the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference in April on how North Korea can use blockchain technology to evade sanctions.

Dow Jones Risk & Compliance has 24/7 monitoring and dedicated researchers to track and build detailed profiles of individuals and entities that are subject to economic sanctions.

President Trump cited currency manipulation as the reason to reimpose tariffs on imports from the two South American countries.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control places subsidiary to Cuban state-run oil shipper, Corporacion Panamericana, on blacklist for circumventing sanctions against Venezuela’s oil sector.

A proposed rule calls for the Commerce Department to determine whether certain technologies pose a threat to U.S. national security and prohibit those trade transactions.

Shipments of counterfeit driver’s licenses and blank card stock were discovered and seized by Customs and Border Protection officers at Louisville and Memphis mail facilities.

For two years the software company’s sanctions screening failed to detect a Slovenian app store developer and its owner who were placed on the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

Mark Lambert, who served as co-president of nuclear materials transport specialist TLI, will be sentenced by the District Court of Maryland on March 9, 2020.

While most license applications related to the Chinese telecom are expected to be denied, news reports surface that some U.S. companies have started receiving approvals from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Carl Bentzel will bring nearly 30 years of maritime legislative and policy background to the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission.

The agreement, which takes effect Jan. 1, will guarantee the import of 132,304 metric tons of U.S.-grown rice, valued at $110 million.

U.S. export compliance advisers recommend exporters be realistic in their expectations with regard to the department’s license approval process for the blacklisted Chinese telecom.

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America picks Whitmer & Worrall after longtime Capitol Hill representative Jon Kent announced his retirement in September.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said optical lenses manufacturer Satisloh used false descriptions, tariff classifications and duty rates on its import entries for certain machinery and parts.

The department’s extension of the temporary general license gives U.S. companies another 90 days to continue their business activities with the Chinese telecom.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the enhancements, to be rolled out over three phases through the rest of this year and 2020, pave the way to retiring legacy truck manifest application.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection will use the industry’s comments to refine its Section 321 E-Commerce Data Pilot.

U.S. poultry producers eye more than $1 billion market potential for China after being shut out for five years.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Philadelphia discovered the counterfeit rings potentially valued at $562,000, if genuine, in an express shipment manifested as a “box” valued at $14.

The ongoing U.S.-China trade war has illuminated the value that these intermediaries bring to properly classifying, clearing and paying duties on Chinese goods entering the country.

Digitalization has taken hold across every aspect of the trucking industry, from the back office and receiving dock, to the drivers, trucks and trailers, making it difficult for carrier and […]

The Chicago-based 3PL and TMS provider has launched a consulting service to help companies integrate its RedwoodConnect 2.0, and added two senior executives to promote IT strategy.

FreightWaves donates new Daimler Freightliner Sprinter delivery vehicle to Jayson Gonzalez so he can continue his successful donut delivery venture in Minnesota.

Ryan Rogers, chief transformation officer at Covenant Transportation Group, said the online retail giant has challenged the movers of goods as to what is possible.

CEO Michelle Halkerston has initiated technology investments and initiatives that will raise the profile of her company’s large domestic air freight forwarding operation.

Rachel Premack, a rising transportation reporter at Business Insider, has become a champion among truck drivers for covering the issues from their perspective.

A Miami-based customs broker specializing in perishable imports will benefit from access to agency officers for after-hours inspections through the Reimbursable Services Program.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control assessed $210,600 civil penalty against Apollo Aviation Group for violating the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations.

Between February 2018 and September 2019, U.S. consumers and businesses spent an additional $38 billion on products due to tariffs on Chinese goods, Tariffs Hurt the Heartland said.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found the drugs stuffed in duffel bags inside a container load of scrap aluminum and copper en route to Europe from South America.

The NCBFAA, which represents the customs brokerage industry, has become increasingly upset with the management at the Customs and Border Protection-contracted test sites and the way applicants are treated.

False submission of shipment information in the U.S. government’s Automated Export System helps sink scheme to smuggle military-style inflatable boats and engines to China, according to officials.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the ports keep watch for untreated wood packaging in cargo shipments to prevent the spread of wood-boring pests.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said importers of tobacco from the southeast African country must demonstrate the goods are not in violation for clearance.

Shippers and NVOs urge the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to implement the interpretive rule, while ocean carriers and marine terminals say it needs further refining.

The U.S. Justice Department said Peter Sotis, former owner of Florida-based Add Helium, is accused of smuggling rebreather equipment without an export license to the war-torn country.

The PACT Act closely mirrors the unsuccessful Graham-Van Hollen Turkey Sanctions Bill in the Senate.

U.S. freight forwarders have increasingly embraced canines as part of their technology-driven air cargo security programs.

Francis Alvarez, who operated a forwarding service in Houston, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for violating the Sherman Act.

“This new humanitarian mechanism will help international companies that seek to engage in permissible humanitarian trade with Iran to ensure that they do not run afoul of sanctions,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

Canadian national Alexis Vlachos, who was sentenced to prison last September, will not be able to export or receive anything from the U.S. for the next seven years, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security said.

Battery Council International, which represents U.S. lead acid battery manufacturers, praised the removal of the potentially unsafe products from the supply chain.

The Trump administration said the Turkish government satisfied the five-day ceasefire commitment in northern Syria.

The Southern African country’s political leadership established the national holiday to protest longtime U.S. economic sanctions.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control policy, which focuses on financial ownership of sanctioned individuals or entities, bedevils U.S. companies with sophisticated compliance programs.

The Wise Honest illegally transported coal on behalf of the North Korean regime from November 2016 to April 2018.

The Trump administration said it is taking this latest regulatory action to further restrict the Cuban government’s efforts to support Venezuela’s Maduro regime.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Oct. 17 extended the general license for Nynas AB that is 50% owned by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petrόleos de Venezuela S.A.

Turkey has the next five days to maintain the ceasefire against Syrian and Kurdish forces before the U.S. sanctions are removed.

The Hong Kong Human Right Rights and Democracy Act, which unanimously passed the House of Representatives on Oct. 15, puts pressure on Hong Kong to uphold U.S. export controls.

A U.S. Coast Guard investigation in February discovered the Nederland Reefer’s chief engineer had devised a scheme to illegally dump oily bilge into the sea.

The Trump administration takes aim at financial assets of Turkish government agencies and officials linked to military strikes in Syria, but Congress may legislate broader sanctions in the days ahead.

Petitions must be filed to the U.S. International Trade Commission by no later than Dec. 10 to be considered for inclusion in the next miscellaneous tariff bill.

NCBFAA generally supports Customs and Border Protection’s goal to protect against illicit importers but said the agency’s proposed importer verification rule has “grossly miscalculated the cost” to customs brokers.

“Finally, a ray of hope for the U.S.-China trade relationship,” said Myron Brilliant, U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s head of international affairs.

The Graham-Van Hollen sanctions bill would cut off Turkey from U.S. military equipment and parts, as well as target foreign support of the country’s oil and gas production used by its armed forces.

Customs brokers say a permanent extension of the 2017 Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act would incentivize Customs and Border Protection to automate the tax refund process.

Customs and Border Protection officers said the counterfeit footwear, which was recently seized at the L.A./Long Beach seaport complex, was mis-declared as “napkins.”

“This new module will make it easier for Commerce and CBP to monitor and uphold our trade laws,” Executive Assistant Commissioner Brenda Smith of CBP’s Office of Trade said.

The Commerce Department said the Chinese government and commercial entities added to the export control list participated in human rights violations against China’s Muslim ethnic minorities.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Michael Khouri talks with American Shipper about priority container shipping regulatory issues for fiscal year 2020.

The association, which represents the country’s customs brokers and freight forwarders, seeks better engagement between Customs and Border Protection and industry software vendors.

I.D. Systems, which renamed itself PowerFleet, will keep the Pointer brand, a well established player in the international wireless truck asset management space.

The Government Accountability Office found that Treasury, State and Commerce agencies, which administer U.S. economic sanctions, lack the ability to definitively measure their effectiveness.

“Items that likely would have been forfeited, slated for auction or destroyed as part of a final disposition are now going to help those in need,” CBP’s Miami International Airport port director said.

The National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America will work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to develop the education program.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said three GE subsidiaries failed to use “reasonable care” by accepting payments from a Cuban entity associated with a Canadian customer.

Customs and Border Protection issued holds on five products from five countries, requiring U.S. importers to re-export those products or provide additional information that they were not made with forced labor.

The World Shipping Council considers next steps after the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission on September 26 denied a part of its petition calling for the elimination of service contract filing.

Brandon Fried, executive director of the Airforwarders Association, believes U.S. Customs and Border Protection must step up engagement with his industry to boost its participation.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission does not expect easy answers to the question of how to fairly assess demurrage and detention when Customs and Border Protection holds containers.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control identified Moscow-based Maritime Assistance LLC as the head of a “sanctions evasion scheme” to deliver jet fuel to Syria.

The Federal Maritime Commission approves the ocean container carrier organization’s petition to eliminate publication of essential terms but retains the requirement to file the actual service contracts.

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control said the sanctions do not apply to parent company COSCO Shipping Corp. and other affiliates not involved in the transport of Iranian oil.

Customs and Border Protection officers in the Kentucky port of entry seized counterfeit Cartier bracelets and other jewelry between July and September, resulting in an importer’s arrest.

Four ocean shipping firms and four tankers are added to the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s Specially Designated Nationals List for their roles in supporting Maduro regime.

The aerospace and defense company Harris Corp. failed to stop repeated violations of the Arms Export Control Act for several years following notification by the Defense Department of wrongdoing.

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s Democratic members are expected to reject proposed Department of Homeland Security fiscal year 2020 funding bill if $5 billion for southern border wall stays.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture agency looks forward to receiving import documentation through Customs and Border Protection’s International Trade Data System.

Customs and Border Protection explores electronic methods to capture data on the estimated 1.8 million package shipments valued at less than $800 arriving in the U.S. each day.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission set the new comment deadline for its notice of proposed interpretive rule to address demurrage and detention practices to Oct. 31.

The Treasury Department adds two banks to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List in response to Iran’s alleged involvement in missile attacks against Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities.

Through the continued development of automated processes, U.S. Customs and Border Protection foresees the day when paper export manifests will no longer be necessary.

Manufacturer installed diesel engines in construction equipment that failed to meet emissions standards under the Clean Air Act when imported into the U.S. from 2012 to 2015.

Dip Shipping will pay a criminal fine to settle an antitrust violation charge as part of an ongoing U.S. Justice Department forwarder price-fixing investigation.

Tariff Reform Coalition members want the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee to “exercise greater oversight and control” over President Trump’s tariff authority.

New law strengthens U.S. government’s national security oversight of foreign investments in American companies that manufacture “critical” technologies and infrastructure, as well as own airport and seaport properties.