Global trade has an even farther reach than you may realize. For example, did you know...

A recent decision by the U.S. District Court served as a major victory for Agility Logistics, a global supply chain management company who has been charged with defrauding the U.S. military of $68 million on a food supply contract with several countries in the Middle East. U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Baverman ruled that the Justice Department failed to properly serve the company with an indictment. Agility argued that the U.S. government should have delivered papers to its parent company, Public Warehousing Co, which is in Kuwait. Instead, papers were delivered to the U.S. office of its Agility Defense & Government Services unit.

The USDA's Economic Research Service has issued a report on Karnal bunt (KB), a wheat disease of limited distribution in the United States, as affected areas are quarantined to limit spread of the disease. Currently, the KB regulatory program allows the USDA to issue phytosanitary export certificates stating that a wheat shipment is from an area where KB is not known to occur. Some in the wheat marketing chain, particularly elevator operators, find the regulatory program burdensome and advocate ending it. A model developed by the ERS was used to analyze the market effects of ending the certification. An average annual loss of 15.1% in export markets for US wheat producers would be only partially offset by increased use of lower priced wheat for domestic livestock feed.

The Treasury Department states that the Office of Foreign Assets Control announced an $860,000 settlement with Agar Corporation, Inc. (ACI), an oil field equipment company. ACI participated in the unlicensed export of oil and gas production equipment for use in Sudan, which is in violation of the Sudanese Sanctions Regulations.

EU

Changes have been made to the European Union Tariff Rate Quota, specifically pertaining to high quality beef and sugar. The following HTS chapters are affected: 02 and 17.

ARGENTINA

New import certificate requirements have been established for certain products. The following HTS chapters are affected: 28, 48, 51, 52, 54, 55, 60, 61, 62, 65, 84, and 87.

US and EU Issue Joint Trade and Climate Change Declaration, Annexes

The White House has posted the US-European Union Joint Declaration and Annexes from their recent summit. Both the US and the EU have agreed to promote an international climate change agreement in Copenhagen. Leading by example, they will fight protectionism by respecting the G-20 commitments to refrain from raising or imposing new barriers to trade and investments. Lastly, the US and EU will make determined efforts to seek the conclusion of a Doha Development Agenda agreement in 2010.

The UK has updated its export controls, revoking OGEL Computers. The flags for OGEL LVS, OGEL Turkey, and OGEL Hong Kong have also been updated. The following categories are affected: 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 9.

An update has been made to the European Union export embargoes and sanctions. An arms embargo against The Republic of Guinea has been added.