President Barack Obama signed into law on June 10 the Water Resources Reform and Development Act. The law mandates full use of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for harbor maintenance and dredging by 2025, with annual increases in use over the next 10 years. House and Senate conferees brokered the compromise on the legislation in May after months of negotiations (see 14051612).

President Barack Obama will nominate Marcus Jadotte as assistant secretary for industry and analysis at the Commerce Department and Bruce Andrews as the deputy secretary at Commerce. Jadotte served as the vice president of public affairs and multicultural development at NASCAR from 2011 to 2014, and previously served on congressional staffs. Andrews is currently chief of staff at Commerce, a position he has held since 2011.

President Barack Obama issued a presidential proclamation on May 16 to declare May 18 through May 24, 2014, as World Trade Week. Obama urged Americans to host events, trade shows and educational programs to promote trade initiatives.

President Barack Obama sent to the Senate on May 15 nominations for Victor Mendez as deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation, as well as Peter Rogoff as Transportation under secretary for policy. Obama announced his intent to nomination Mendez and Rogoff on May 14, along with the nomination of Robert Adler for a subsequent term as commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (see 14051515).

President Barack Obama will nominate Robert Adler as commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for a subsequent term. Adler currently is acting chairman of the CPSC, after being appointed to the agency in 2009. Obama also intends to nominate Victor Mendez as deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation, along with Peter Rogoff as under secretary for policy at Transportation. Mendez is currently acting deputy secretary of Transportation, and has served as administrator of the Transportation Department’s Federal Highway Administration since 2009. Rogoff was designated acting under secretary of Transportation for policy in 2014, and has served as federal transit administrator since 2009.

President Barack Obama on May 13 issued an executive order to sanction five individuals from the Central African Republic accused of destabilizing the country and fueling violence over recent months. The executive order also provides the Treasury Department with a larger scope to exact additional sanctions against those involved in the crisis. The order blocks the U.S. property and interests of the sanctioned individuals, along with property and interests that come into the U.S. The order also prohibits other dealings with the sanctioned individuals. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control added the individuals to the Specially Designated Nationals List (here), as follows:

The U.S. and Uruguay aimed to sign a Customs Mutual Assistance Agreement on the sidelines of a May 12 meeting between President Barack Obama and Uruguayan President Jose Mujica Cordano, according to a White House Fact Sheet. The agreement provides the legal framework to exchange information and lend assistance related to the prevention, detection, and investigation of customs offenses. The collaboration aims to stem duty evasion, among other customs priorities, according to the White House. The U.S. has signed similar agreements with 68 countries globally. The two sides also held on May 12 a trade and investment council meeting under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement. The meeting included work toward enhancement on bilateral trade facilitation, market access for agricultural products, trade in services, intellectual property rights and small and medium business cooperation, said the White House. The officials in attendance praised the recent Uruguayan grant of market access to U.S. poultry and beef, along with U.S. market opening to Uruguayan citrus and deboned lamb. Bilateral trade registered $2.2 billion in total goods trade in 2013, said the White House.

Multiple trade associations recently voiced concerns to National Security Council (NSC) Staff on the evasion of antidumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD) for wire and wire products, said the American Wire Producers Association (AWPA). The AWPA, the National Association of Manufacturers and American Iron and Steel Institute were among those who met with NSC Staffers Bennett Harman, director of International Trade and Investment and Christine Turner, director of Global Supply Chain Security. The NSC gives advice to the President on a number of domestic and foreign policy issues. Harman "spoke about the convening authority of the White House" and the AWPA believes "it is his intention use this authority to bring the relevant agencies together to work on these solutions to the evasion of AD/CVD orders by transshipment," the trade association said. The AWPA also discussed the problems with CBP's current process of fraud investigations to stop transshipment, it said.

The chance for industry participation within the implementation the International Trade Data System Executive Order will not stop with input from Federal Advisory Committees (FACAs), said Christine Turner, director for global supply chain and trade facilitation at the National Security Council of the President. Turner, who is in charge of overseeing the order's implementation, spoke during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce supply chain conference on May 8. President Barack Obama's February order called for completion of the ITDS by 2016 (see 14021928). FACAs are official groups made up of people outside the government that are meant to be a forum for industry, academia and others to give insight into various policy issues.

The Obama administration will not set "artificial deadlines" in dealing with the conflict in Ukraine, but will continue to monitor the situation and new sanctions remain possible, said White House spokesman Jay Carney during a May 5 press conference. "We’ve always made clear that the tools available to the president allow him and this administration to escalate the costs if activity by Russia aimed at destabilizing Ukraine escalates," said Carney. "And I wouldn’t -- nor am I saying that sanctions are coming on any particular day or will come on any particular day if Russia does this particular action."