The Obama Administration on Aug. 1 sent a total of 23 nominations to the Senate to seek confirmation, including Stevan Eaton Bunnell, of the District of Columbia, to be General Counsel, Department of Homeland Security and Karen Dynan, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.

President Barack Obama issued an executive order July 1 establishing a task force to combat trafficking of protected species. A press release said the task force will be co-chaired by the Secretary of State, Secretary of Interior and the Attorney General, or their respective designees. Officials throughout the presidential cabinet, USTR, USAID and other agencies, will form the rest of the task force membership. The group will report to the president through the National Security Advisor.

The White House is launching a new trade partnership on July 1 that targets increased economic ties between Africa and the United States. Dubbed Trade Africa, the partnership will initially focus on expanding internal and external trade among East African Community (EAC) countries, according to a White House press release. Building off skyrocketing GDP growth within the EAC over the past decade, the Trade Africa initiative seeks to increase regional exports to the U.S. by 40%, while reducing by 15% the average time needed to import or export cargo from the Mombasa or Dar es Salaam ports, the White House said. The U.S. is also encouraging decreased regional border barriers and the transition to a single EAC customs and revenue sharing authority, it said.

The U.S. government plans to shore up its supply chain security to help prevent intellectual property infringing merchandise as part of a new administration effort to improve IP enforcement, the White House said in its annual IP report released June 20 (here). The governmental supply chain should serve as a model for preventing IP violations, the report said. The administration plans to release its final "Strategy on Counterfeits in the U.S. Government Supply Chain" report later this year. IPEC and State Department officials will continue to work with G-8 governments to adhere to their commitments regarding counterfeits in government supply chains, the report said.

The national emergency for the Western Balkans region, first declared in 2001, is extended for one additional year, until June 2014, President Obama said in a June 17 Congressional message (here). Acts of “extremist violence and obstructionist activity” continue in the region, including extremist violence in Macedonia and acts hindering Dayton Accords implementation in Bosnia, the message said. These acts are hostile to U.S. interests and a threat to national security and foreign policy, Obama said.

The U.S. and European Union will begin negotiations for the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership agreement July 8, the White House announced June 17. The agreement will aim to boost U.S. and EU economic growth and add more than 13 million jobs, the White House said in a statement. Some of the other negotiating objectives include:

President Obama issued notice that Belarus’ national emergency declaration, set to expire June 16, will continue for one additional year. In a June 14 notice to Congress, Obama said the government of Belarus “has not taken steps forward in the development of democratic governance and respect for human rights,” including by arbitrarily arresting citizens for political opposition and stymieing the country’s independent media (read the notice here). The country’s human rights abuses and political repression “continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security and foreign policy, Obama said. The national emergency for Belarus was originally declared through a June 2006 executive order.

Coping with cybersecurity issues such as hacking and intellectual property theft puts the U.S. and China in uncharted waters, lacking the historical protocols that govern military and arms negotiations, President Obama said after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping June 8. He said IPR and hacking are issues of “international concern,” and often involve non-state actors. “We’re going to have to work very hard to build a system of defenses and protections, both in the private sector and in the public sector, even as we negotiate with other countries around setting up common rules of the road,” Obama said. Xi said by conducting “good-faith cooperation” the U.S. and China can not only improve trust but make cybersecurity a “positive area of cooperation between China and the U.S. Because China and the United States both have a need and both share a concern, and China is a victim of cyber attacks and we hope that earnest measures can be taken to resolve this matter.”

India’s “troubling trend” of trade discrimination -- burdensome local content regulations, flouting of intellectual property rights -- require the U.S. to use all “available tools and diplomatic engagement,” a group of business groups from various industries said in a June 6 letter to President Obama. Courts and lawmakers in India have also engaged in a “persistent pattern of discrimination designed to benefit India’s business community at the expense of American jobs,” said the 17 groups which signed the letter. India recently demanded that nearly 100 percent of its market for certain information technology and clean energy equipment be satisfied through domestic firms, the letter said. Court rulings have also imposed “arbitrary marketing restrictions on medical devices and denying, breaking, or revoking patents for nearly a dozen lifesaving medications.”

The Office of Management and Budget outlined some best practices for government agency employee travel and attendance of industry conferences in a recent memorandum to the Chief Financial Officers of federal agencies. The federal agencies, including CBP, have recently cut back hard on agency travel expenditures as part of the sequestration budget reductions (see 13031413).. While each agency is ultimately responsible for internal travel and conference policies, OMB provided some basic guidelines as best practices. The memo was released by the American Society of Association Executives (here).