President Barack Obama will nominate David Abney as a member of the President’s Export Council, the White House said on Sept. 18. Abney has worked at UPS for more than 40 years, most recently serving as chief operating officer from 2007-14.
President Barack Obama sent the nomination of Federal Maritime Commissioner Mario Cordero to the Senate on Sept. 18, the White House said in a statement. Senate approval would reappoint Cordero, the agency's chairman, as commissioner until 2019.
The Bureau of Industry and Security furthered its crackdown on Russian arms and weaponry traders on Sept. 12, as the Obama administration strapped another sanctions package on the Russian defense, financial and energy sectors (here). BIS added five Russian companies to its Entity List. The designations level license requirements, with a presumption of denial, for the export, reexport and foreign transfer of items subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). Those companies are as follows:
The U.S. will join the European Union in imposing another round of Russian sanctions on Sept. 12, said President Barack Obama the day before in a statement. The measures will again target the Russian financial, energy and defense sectors. "We are implementing these new measures in light of Russia’s actions to further destabilize Ukraine over the last month, including through the presence of heavily armed Russian forces in eastern Ukraine," said Obama. "These measures will increase Russia’s political isolation as well as the economic costs to Russia, especially in areas of importance to President Putin and those close to him."
President Barack Obama sent to the Senate on Sept. 8 the nomination of Jeanne Davidson as a judge on the Court of International Trade, the White House said. Davidson currently serves as director of the International Trade Field Office in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division at the Justice Department, as well as the offices of Foreign Litigation and International Legal Assistance. Obama revealed his intent to nominate Davidson in mid-August (see 14081821).
President Barack Obama authorized on Sept. 5 a one-year extension for sanctions authorities associated with Cuba. The regulations are implemented through the Cuban Assets Control Regulations and fall under the Trade With the Enemy Act, the White House said. The extension expires on Sept. 14, 2015.
President Barack Obama will nominate Russell Deyo, previously an executive at Johnson & Johnson, as undersecretary for management at the Department of Homeland Security, Sarah Saldaña, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, as assistant secretary for ICE and Danny Marti as the White House’s intellectual property enforcement coordinator. Marti currently serves as managing partner at Kilpatrick Townsend. “Danny’s impressive record of commitment to enforcing IP rights in the Internet age makes him a particularly strong choice,” said Motion Picture Association of America CEO Chris Dodd in a Aug. 28 statement (here).
The Treasury and State Departments on Aug. 29 released an extensive list of sanctions on individuals and entities in Iran. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) placed individuals, entities and vessels on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement the Iran sanctions are consistent with the relief package brokered between P5+1 countries and Iran in January (see 14072525). “Our actions today and since the start of the talks are consistent with our commitments under the Joint Plan of Action, which provided limited relief of certain sanctions in exchange for Iranian steps that halted its nuclear program and rolled it back in key respects,” said Hayden.
Small business owners and others in the trade community that rely on state financing in order to export goods should press lawmakers to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank while Congress is back in home districts for August, said President Barack Obama in an Aug. 23 weekly address that focused on the credit agency. “Small business owners have had to overcome a lot these past several years. We all saw local businesses close their doors during the crisis,” said Obama. “And in the past few years, we’ve seen more and more open their doors and do their part to help lead America’s comeback. At the very least, they deserve a Congress that doesn’t stand in the way of their success.” House and Senate lawmakers are at loggerheads over reauthorization legislation, with many Republicans arguing the credit agency actually hampers U.S. economic growth (see 14073111). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is seeking reauthorization as one of the chamber’s main priorities in September (see 14080509). The bank’s charter expires on Sept. 30.
The summit planned for September between President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi represents an important opportunity for both countries to bridge differences on trade rules and policy, said President of The National Bureau of Asian Research Richard Ellings in a recent paper. The two sides have been pitted against each other in conflicts over localization barriers and alleged Indian intellectual property (IP) right violations. “The IP challenge from India, while not as significant in scope or scale as that from China, has its own worrisome components,” said Ellings. “The unpredictable use of compulsory licenses is particularly nettlesome for affected U.S. sectors, especially pharmaceuticals, where two-thirds of patented drugs are on a list of potential compulsory licenses.” Many U.S. industry and administration officials have lambasted India for failing to stop a pervasive pharmaceutical counterfeit industry in the country, but the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) did not place India on the “priority watch list” during a recent review (see 14050101).