China said it will continue to push for Huawei to be included in any potential U.S.-China trade deal, despite President Donald Trump saying the U.S. does not want to discuss Huawei in negotiations. “China’s position is clear. It is hoped that the U.S. will stop using the national power to suppress the wrong practices of Chinese enterprises in the name of national security,” China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesman said Sept. 5, according to an unofficial translation of a transcript from a press conference.

The Commerce Department has been receiving fewer questions and complaints on export controls as it proceeds with the government’s Export Control Reform initiative, said Hillary Hess, director of the regulatory policy division at the Bureau of Industry and Security. The reform process, which began under the Obama administration and continues as Commerce prepares to release proposed export controls on emerging and foundational technologies (see 1909030037), has proved largely “effective,” Hess said. Hess said she uses the number of complaints from U.S. industry as a measurement.

U.S. export controls are confusing, burdensome and often place U.S. companies at a disadvantage compared with foreign competitors, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai said in an Aug. 29 report.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced sanctions on a shipping network that moves hundreds of millions of dollars of oil for Iran, Treasury said in a Sept. 4 press release. The network includes dozens of ship managers, ships and “facilitators” overseen by Rostam Qasemi, a senior Iranian military official and the country’s former minister of petroleum. The sanctions target 16 entities, 10 people and 11 ships.

Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with some of the top stories for Aug. 26-30 in case they were missed.

A Bureau of Industry and Security official acknowledged a delay in the agency’s proposed rulemaking for foundational technologies, saying she and other top Commerce Department officials expected the notice to be published by now. “I personally thought foundational would be out faster than it is. It was not just higher-level people,” said Hillary Hess, BIS’s director of the regulatory policy division, speaking during a Sept. 3 panel hosted by the American Bar Association.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species recently adopted widespread changes to international restrictions on trade in plants and wildlife at its triennial Conference of the Parties held Aug. 17-28 in Geneva. Among those changes are an expanded exemption from permit requirements for finished goods, including instruments, made from certain species of rosewood that will take effect sometime in November.

A federal court in Philadelphia sentenced an exporter of protected wildlife to six months in prison for smuggling terrapins to Canada in violation of the Lacey Act, the Justice Department said in an Aug. 29 press release. David Sommers of Levittown, Pennsylvania, had pleaded guilty in February to Lacey Act false labeling violations related to the misdeclaration of diamondback terrapins on a commercial invoice and international air waybill he submitted to a carrier for a shipment to Canada.

A recent Canada Border Service Agency policy update on how it administers antidumping normal value reviews seems to mark a notable shift away from a prospective system of trade remedies, lawyers at Borden Ladner said in a recent blog post. The new policy, which was announced (see 1907190017) in a July 19 memo, reduces predictability about whether a sales price "will be sufficient to avoid duty liability when goods are imported into the Canadian market," the firm said. CBSA disagreed with the characterization and said the policies "were informed by consultation with industry, workers, and other stakeholders."

Almost half of companies that responded to the U.S.-China Business Council's annual survey on the business climate in China said they have lost sales in China since the trade war began. The most common reason is because of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports to China, according to these 100 multinational firms based in the U.S. Another third said they lost sales because of U.S. tariffs.